text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Mary Harris Jones</a> herself would have gotten a chuckle out of this:&#160;We’ve received a <a href="" type="internal">mash note</a> from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)&#160;and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-La.)&#160;congratulating MoJo for “successfully using flexibility to meet both business and employee goals.”&#160;Of course you knew that Crapo and Lincoln’s offices coordinate the Senate Staff Work Group on Workplace Flexibility; the letter comes on occasion of the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexbility, which rewards how well companies deploy things like flex time, family leave, telecommuting, etc. (Yes—MoJo staffers who blog at 2 a.m. have the option of doing it from home!) Worth noting that of the more than 100 honorees, very few (including us and the Girl Scouts) are nonprofits, while most are large companies (primarily tech)&#160;or law firms, accounting firms, and such. It’s not the only major award we’ve <a href="" type="internal">won</a> or <a href="" type="internal">been nominated for</a>lately, and we’re proud to add it to our expanding trophy closet.</p>
<p /> | Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho): Hey MoJo, You’re Awesome! | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/sen-mike-crapo-r-idaho-hey-mojo-youre-awesome/ | 2009-07-23 | 4 |
<p>If you looked at Saturday morning’s papers, you knew that the big issue coming into Saturday night’s debate was how <a href="/content/newsweek/2011/12/11/inside-newt-s-stunning-comeback.html" type="external">Newt Gingrich</a> was going to handle the Palestinian question. Saturday’s papers carried the news that Gingrich had described the Palestinians an “ <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/10/palestinians-invented-people-newt-gingrich" type="external">an invented people</a>” in an interview he taped with The Jewish Channel. Obvious and flagrant match thrown on raging gasoline. Would he actually stand by this?</p>
<p>He’s Newt! Of course he did! He doubled . . . no, he quintupled down. “The Palestinian’s story of the right of return is based on a historically false story,” he said. Then he naturally compared himself to Ronald Reagan, who called the USSR an “evil empire” against (says Gingrich) the best wisdom of his advisers and the State Department sellouts, and who “believed the power of truth reframed the world and restated the world.” Gingrich then added: “I’m a Reaganite.”</p>
<p>The Palestinians, the equivalent of the Soviet Union? This is not going away for a couple of days yet at least. Whatever one believes about the history, no one can talk like that and lead a peace process—which is another way of saying that no one can talk like that and be president. Everyone knows this. Even arch-neocon Elliott Abrams knows this, for gosh sake, as evidenced by Abrams’s <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gingrich-calls-palestinians-an-invented-people/2011/12/09/gIQAlibCjO_story.html" type="external">quote</a> in The Washington Post story Saturday. If he knows it, every Republican voter knows it. Will it, and whatever further digging in of his heels Gingrich does over the next few days, make those voters decide, “okay, this guy is too full of himself, and much as we’d like to, we just can’t send him out there are our nominee”? Or will it make them think, “damn right, this is what we want to hear from our nominee”?</p>
<p>This will tell us a lot. If Gingrich is still going strong by Wednesday—if this reckless, f-you statement hasn’t hurt him—then we can fairly conclude that the GOP base just doesn’t give a shit and is wholly intent on nominating someone who expresses their rage about Barack Obama and the world. If he’s on the defensive about it, that will tell us that the base still has some relationship to the planet the rest of us live on. If it’s the former, Gingrich will likely get the nomination; if the latter, Mitt Romney still has a good shot. This remark and its fallout might be the make or break moment.</p> | Michael Tomasky: Newt’s Palestine Comments Are An Outrage | true | https://thedailybeast.com/michael-tomasky-newts-palestine-comments-are-an-outrage | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Early on South Carolina didn’t look much like the Final Four team it was a year ago. Lately, though, the Gamecocks are have turned things around, both on and off the court.</p>
<p>New additions, a talented junior living up to potential and a relentless knack for overcoming problems have South Carolina making a move in the Southeastern Conference standings. The Gamecocks’ turnaround includes a dramatic comeback from 14-points down in the second half to beat No. 18 Kentucky 76-68 earlier this week.</p>
<p>“I like this team,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. “Our guys are great. They’re fun to coach.”</p>
<p>It didn’t always look that way earlier this season.</p>
<p>The Gamecocks (12-6, 3-3 SEC) were the surprise of college basketball last March with their run to the Final Four, which included wins over Duke, Baylor and Florida. But the heart of that team — guards Sindarius Thornwell, Duane Notice and Justin McKie — were all seniors. In addition, McDonald’s All-American P.J. Dozier, who would’ve been a junior this season, chose to enter the NBA draft.</p>
<p>During the summer, Dozier’s expected replacement, Rakym Felder, was suspended from the program and left school after his second arrest in less than a year.</p>
<p>Martin was forced to rely on grad transfers like Kory Holden, Wesley Myers and Frank Booker to blend with returnees like Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar.</p>
<p>And when things got hard, Martin said his team often shrunk from the challenge because of a lack of leadership. They lost to rival Clemson and Old Miss and Missouri in a four-game stretch during the holidays that pointed toward a downward trend for the Gamecocks.</p>
<p>That’s when things started to turn. Martin said a huge reason was Silva’s emergence as a leader.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-9 junior forward had been a force before — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycA-QD9IOpE" type="external">he had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the NCAA win over Duke</a> — but did it in a quiet way, content to let others lead. But with the Gamecocks 0-2 to start SEC play, Silva took charge in practice, both vocally and with his play, and led his team to a 71-60 win over Vanderbilt two weeks ago.</p>
<p>“Frank challenges me every day to be better,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjNOmTMYeuI" type="external">Silva said.</a> “I’m just doing what I’m asked to do.”</p>
<p>Since then, the Gamecocks have overcome challenges to win. They shot 27 percent in pulling off a road win at Georgia last week. On Tuesday night, South Carolina trailed Kentucky 54-40 with less than 13 minutes left. Instead of folding, Martin said, the Gamecocks found some leadership from Silva, Myers and Booker.</p>
<p>“We were trying to let it go, trying to hang our heads again, but those three guys said, ‘No, not tonight,’ and a lot of credit to them for doing that,” Martin said.</p>
<p>The coach is unsure if the surge will continue.</p>
<p>The next test comes Saturday when South Carolina plays No. 21 Tennessee (12-5, 3-3) on Saturday night.</p>
<p>Vols coach Rick Barnes prepped teams to go against Martin when both were in the Big 12 Conference; Barnes at Texas and Martin at Kansas State.</p>
<p>“I think South Carolina plays the way Frank wants his teams to play,” Barnes said. “They’re no different than everybody else (in that) sometimes it takes teams a little bit longer to totally figure it out.”</p>
<p>One factor that’s helped along with lifting the team’s spirits has been the reinstatement of Felder and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjPLWjxvE5s" type="external">addition of Brian Bowen Jr</a> ., the one-time suspended Louisville recruit who signed at South Carolina earlier this month. Neither will play this season — Martin is holding Felder out this season and Bowen must adhere to NCAA transfer rules and be reinstated by the governing body — but the two have been at practices and helping the team improve.</p>
<p>“We can’t appreciate them enough,” said Booker, who had played at Oklahoma and Florida Atlantic before South Carolina. “We just hope they keep bringing that energy.”</p>
<p>It’s all led to a flurry of success that has the Gamecocks finally living up to last year’s Final Four team.</p>
<p>“You can see,” Booker said, “that we’re starting to gel a little bit.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a> .</p>
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Early on South Carolina didn’t look much like the Final Four team it was a year ago. Lately, though, the Gamecocks are have turned things around, both on and off the court.</p>
<p>New additions, a talented junior living up to potential and a relentless knack for overcoming problems have South Carolina making a move in the Southeastern Conference standings. The Gamecocks’ turnaround includes a dramatic comeback from 14-points down in the second half to beat No. 18 Kentucky 76-68 earlier this week.</p>
<p>“I like this team,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said. “Our guys are great. They’re fun to coach.”</p>
<p>It didn’t always look that way earlier this season.</p>
<p>The Gamecocks (12-6, 3-3 SEC) were the surprise of college basketball last March with their run to the Final Four, which included wins over Duke, Baylor and Florida. But the heart of that team — guards Sindarius Thornwell, Duane Notice and Justin McKie — were all seniors. In addition, McDonald’s All-American P.J. Dozier, who would’ve been a junior this season, chose to enter the NBA draft.</p>
<p>During the summer, Dozier’s expected replacement, Rakym Felder, was suspended from the program and left school after his second arrest in less than a year.</p>
<p>Martin was forced to rely on grad transfers like Kory Holden, Wesley Myers and Frank Booker to blend with returnees like Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar.</p>
<p>And when things got hard, Martin said his team often shrunk from the challenge because of a lack of leadership. They lost to rival Clemson and Old Miss and Missouri in a four-game stretch during the holidays that pointed toward a downward trend for the Gamecocks.</p>
<p>That’s when things started to turn. Martin said a huge reason was Silva’s emergence as a leader.</p>
<p>The 6-foot-9 junior forward had been a force before — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycA-QD9IOpE" type="external">he had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the NCAA win over Duke</a> — but did it in a quiet way, content to let others lead. But with the Gamecocks 0-2 to start SEC play, Silva took charge in practice, both vocally and with his play, and led his team to a 71-60 win over Vanderbilt two weeks ago.</p>
<p>“Frank challenges me every day to be better,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjNOmTMYeuI" type="external">Silva said.</a> “I’m just doing what I’m asked to do.”</p>
<p>Since then, the Gamecocks have overcome challenges to win. They shot 27 percent in pulling off a road win at Georgia last week. On Tuesday night, South Carolina trailed Kentucky 54-40 with less than 13 minutes left. Instead of folding, Martin said, the Gamecocks found some leadership from Silva, Myers and Booker.</p>
<p>“We were trying to let it go, trying to hang our heads again, but those three guys said, ‘No, not tonight,’ and a lot of credit to them for doing that,” Martin said.</p>
<p>The coach is unsure if the surge will continue.</p>
<p>The next test comes Saturday when South Carolina plays No. 21 Tennessee (12-5, 3-3) on Saturday night.</p>
<p>Vols coach Rick Barnes prepped teams to go against Martin when both were in the Big 12 Conference; Barnes at Texas and Martin at Kansas State.</p>
<p>“I think South Carolina plays the way Frank wants his teams to play,” Barnes said. “They’re no different than everybody else (in that) sometimes it takes teams a little bit longer to totally figure it out.”</p>
<p>One factor that’s helped along with lifting the team’s spirits has been the reinstatement of Felder and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjPLWjxvE5s" type="external">addition of Brian Bowen Jr</a> ., the one-time suspended Louisville recruit who signed at South Carolina earlier this month. Neither will play this season — Martin is holding Felder out this season and Bowen must adhere to NCAA transfer rules and be reinstated by the governing body — but the two have been at practices and helping the team improve.</p>
<p>“We can’t appreciate them enough,” said Booker, who had played at Oklahoma and Florida Atlantic before South Carolina. “We just hope they keep bringing that energy.”</p>
<p>It’s all led to a flurry of success that has the Gamecocks finally living up to last year’s Final Four team.</p>
<p>“You can see,” Booker said, “that we’re starting to gel a little bit.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25</a> .</p> | South Carolina moving up in SEC basketball standings | false | https://apnews.com/1e74aa8801e042fc9a9eec7479158e87 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>Shawn Helton <a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-kVj" type="external">21st Century Wire</a>&#160;</p>
<p>Canada’s PM&#160;Justin Trudeau announced he’s ready to ‘reassess’ the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with US President-elect Donald Trump, as China pivots away from a highly unpopular Obama-sponsored&#160;TPP trade deal…</p>
<p>‘NEW DAWN’ – President-elect Donald Trump looks to redraw new trade deals for America. (Image Source:&#160; <a href="http://gizmodo.com/the-critical-tech-issues-donald-trump-has-to-face-1788759406" type="external">Gizmodo</a>)</p>
<p>New NAFTA?</p>
<p>What was unthinkable a year ago, is now being considered as a strong possibility.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/canada-pm-trudeau-says-ready-renegotiate-nafta-trump-165713892.html" type="external">AFP news</a>discussed Canada’s willingness to reassess NAFTA with newly elected President Donald Trump. Here’s the following passage describing the recent development:</p>
<p>“Ottawa (AFP) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he is willing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to change or scrap.</p>
<p>During the campaign, Trump called NAFTA the worst trade deal the United States has ever signed, while proposing protectionist measures to repatriate American jobs lost to free trade.</p>
<p>Here’s the important passage&#160;though:</p>
<p>“I think it’s important that we be open to talking about trade deals,” Trudeau — a fierce defender of free trade, which helps bolster the Canadian economy — told reporters.</p>
<p>“If the Americans want to talk about NAFTA, I’m more than happy to talk about it,” he said, adding that it was important to periodically reassess trade deals to ensure that they continue to be of benefit to Canadians.”</p>
<p />
<p>NAFTA NEGOTIATION? – Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau suggests reworking NAFTA. (Image Source:&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/morning_bright" type="external">twitter</a>)</p>
<p>The Obama-Clinton Legacy: ‘NAFTA’s Stain’&#160;</p>
<p>While the US government and mainstream media (along with <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-11/stun-grenades-rubber-bullets-deployed-portland-after-anti-trump-protest-devolves-rio" type="external">riotous anti-trump protestors</a> incited by the George Soros led NGO MoveOn) remain in a state of shock after Donald Trump‘s stunning upset over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, Canada has opened the door to new trade possibilities concerning NAFTA.</p>
<p>During the 2016 election at many Trump rally speeches throughout the US, NAFTA became a hot topic. In fact, he discussed renegotiating or ‘scrapping’ the trade deal altogether while campaigning within rust-belt-states like Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. This political strategy clearly resonated among the working class and those negatively impacted by NAFTA, translating into perhaps one of the larger&#160; <a href="http://www.toledoblade.com/business/2016/10/09/To-workers-hit-by-factory-closures-this-North-American-Free-Trade-Agreement-was-disaster-Trade-deal-prominent-in-election.html" type="external">reasons</a> why Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States.</p>
<p>NAFTA has long since been maligned by American workers due to the number of jobs that have been outsourced since its inception. The trade deal was pursued under&#160;George H.W. Bush, later&#160;signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993.</p>
<p>In an interview on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/20-years-nafta-success-story-damaging-policy/" type="external">PBS’s&#160;</a>NewsHour,&#160;Lori Wallach of &#160;Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch outlined the economic fallout since NAFTA took effect – a trade deal best remembered by a&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/nafta-at-20-one-million-u_b_4550207.html" type="external">loss of over a million US jobs</a>&#160;according to Wallach:</p>
<p>“So there has been a large increase in trade. But a lot of it has been a flood of new NAFTA imports. NAFTA did include investor protections. Those incentivized offshoring of U.S. investments and jobs. So, while we have seen a flood of more trade, it’s 700 percent of that is actually the imports.</p>
<p>So we have had a growth in our trade deficit of almost 500 percent, 480 percent. So just the numbers, before NAFTA, we had a slight surplus with Mexico in trade. And with Canada, we have about a $30 billion deficit. The end-of-year U.S. International Trade Commission official government trade data came out last week. We have a $177 billion combined NAFTA trade deficit.</p>
<p>Using the administration’s old multiplier of what that means for jobs, that’s a net loss of accumulation of over a million jobs. And there’s a government database that has 845,000 specific NAFTA casualties to our manufacturing workers who have been certified for assistance.”</p>
<p>Additionally, Public Citizen wrote a 20th anniversary <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/NAFTA-at-20.pdf" type="external">analysis of the 22-year-old NAFTA deal</a>. Here’s a key passage from their report – a detailed synopsis which underscored the impact of NAFTA on America:</p>
<p>“NAFTA was an experiment, establishing a radically new “trade” agreement model. NAFTA was fundamentally different than past trade agreements in that it was only partially about trade. Indeed, it shattered the boundaries of past U.S. trade pacts, which had focused narrowly on cutting tariffs and easing quotas. In contrast, NAFTA created new privileges and protections for foreign investors that incentivized the offshoring of investment and jobs by eliminating many of the risks normally associated with moving production to low-wage countries.”</p>
<p />
<p>‘DOUBLE DEALING’ – Bill Clinton seen above signing NAFTA into law. (Image Source:&#160; <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765597098/NAFTAs-successes-shows-importance-of-free-trade.html?pg=all" type="external">deseret news</a>)</p>
<p>From NAFTA to TPP &amp; Beyond</p>
<p>The TPP trade deal has been covered extensively at <a href="" type="internal">21WIRE</a>&#160;over the past few years. It is an international trade law for new trade treaties that looks to be a way for private corporations to <a href="" type="internal">exempt themselves</a> from the laws of&#160;sovereign nations under the guise of a so-called free-trade agreement.</p>
<p>The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations hit the mainstream over the past year after the&#160; <a href="http://rt.com/usa/261321-senate-trade-deal-authority-passes/" type="external">US Senate approval</a>&#160;of the controversial trade bill in May 2015.</p>
<p>Over the summer, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/91b726e2-540d-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60" type="external">Financial Times reported</a> that the Clinton family ties to NAFTA and their initial glowing support for the TPP led to a precarious political turn of events for Washington:</p>
<p>“It is time to pronounce the Trans-Pacific Partnership clinically dead. Hillary Clintonhad already put Barack Obama’s signature deal — the biggest US trade initiative in more than a decade — on life support when she came out against it last year. Donald Trump has vowed to scrap it, which meant that whoever took the White House would have pledged its demise. Yet the suspicion lingered that Mrs Clinton was simply following her husband’s bait-and-switch tactics. Bill Clinton ran strongly against the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992 only to do whatever it took to ensure Nafta passed after he took office.”</p>
<p>In many ways, Clinton’s mounting <a href="" type="internal">scandals</a>&#160;were exacerbated by her disingenuous ‘flip-flop’ over the TPP deal, echoing the politicization of NAFTA during the 1990s. This ultimately contributed greatly to the loss of key battleground states in the US election for Clinton, which was further underscored by the public’s repudiation&#160;of President Obama’s healthcare mandate and overall poor economic performance over his 8 years in office – evidenced by the lowest GDP growth rates in US history.</p>
<p>Following news of the US election results, China has chosen to move away from the globalist TPP deal, and instead refocus energy on new agreements. The following incredible statement was reported by <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-diplomacy-trade-idUSKBN1350S4?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=businessNews" type="external">Reuters</a>:</p>
<p>“China will seek support for a Beijing-led Asia-Pacific free trade area at a regional summit in Peru later this month, Chinese officials said on Thursday, after Donald Trump’s U.S. election win dashed hopes for a U.S.-led free trade pact.</p>
<p>During his election campaign Trump took a protectionist stance on trade issues and labeled the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) championed by President Barack Obama a “disaster”. There is now little chance of it coming up for vote in Washington before his inauguration in January.</p>
<p>Obama had framed TPP, which excluded China, as an effort to write Asia’s trade rules before Beijing could, establishing U.S. economic leadership in the region as part of his “pivot to Asia”.</p>
<p>Briefing journalists ahead of President Xi Jinping’s departure for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru from Nov. 19-20, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong warned of the rise of protectionism and said the region needed a free trade agreement as soon as possible.</p>
<p>“Trade and investment protectionism is rearing its head, and Asia-Pacific faces insufficient momentum for internal growth, and difficulties in advancing reforms,” Li said.”</p>
<p>More from CBC news below…</p>
<p />
<p>‘NEW VOICE’ – Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose, criticized Trudeau for not making&#160;Keystone XL pipeline a top priority. (Image Source:&#160; <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/conservatives-will-leave-the-nastiness-behind-rona-ambrose-1.2648267" type="external">CTV News</a>)</p>
<p>Justin Trudeau invites Donald Trump to visit Canada in call that marks ‘strong beginning’</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-trump-visit-canada-1.3845013" type="external">CBC News</a></p>
<p>Prime Minister Justin&#160;Trudeau&#160;has invited U.S. president-elect Donald Trump to visit Canada “at his earliest opportunity.”</p>
<p>Trudeau called Trump on Wednesday&#160;night to congratulate him on his election victory, and the two&#160;discussed “various areas of mutual interest.”</p>
<p>“It was a brief call, but it was a strong beginning to what is going to be a constructive relationship,” Trudeau said during a news conference in Sydney, N.S., this morning.</p>
<p>Asked by reporters how he would explain to children that a “sexist, racist, bully” was taking office, Trudeau stressed the need to promote a strong working relationship with anyone who the American people elect.</p>
<p>It’s important to work constructively with whomever is president because “that’s what Canadians expect,” he said.</p>
<p>“Canadians expect me to stand up for Canadian rights, Canadian opportunities, Canadian jobs and Canadian values,” he said. “And I&#160;will do that in a way that continues to do that in a way that continues to benefit our country and its position in the world.”</p>
<p>Trudeau said Trump expressed “warmth” for Canada during the call.</p>
<p>It has become a tradition that the first foreign visit by a U.S. president is to Canada. According to&#160;the Prime Minister’s Office, Trump also extended an invitation for Trudeau to visit Washington.</p>
<p>No details were provided on when either visit could take place.</p>
<p>Trudeau’s telephone call came after he met with some of his senior advisers and cabinet ministers, who discussed the tone and approach the prime minister should take in the debut meeting with Trump.</p>
<p>CBC news continues <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-trump-visit-canada-1.3845013" type="external">here</a>…</p>
<p>&#160;READ MORE ON THE TPP AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire TPP Files</a></p>
<p>READ MORE ELECTION NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire 2016 Files</a></p>
<p>SUPPORT 21WIRE – SUBSCRIBE &amp; BECOME A MEMBER <a href="https://21wire.tv/membership/plans/" type="external">@21WIRE.TV</a></p> | TRADE RETHINK? Canada Ready to ‘Rework’ NAFTA with Donald Trump – As China Pivots Away from TPP Deal | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/11/10/trade-redux-canada-ready-to-rework-nafta-with-donald-trump-as-china-pivots-away-from-tpp/ | 2016-11-10 | 4 |
<p>The Year of the Biopic</p>
<p>Much more than modern writing, which grew more fragmented and experimental in the early years of the last century, movies were the heir to nineteenth-century traditions of storytelling. Whether exploring matters of fact or fiction, movies, like the novels that preceded them, have always been interested in the arc of individual lives, the intricate unfolding of relationships and careers, and the tensions between our inner feelings and the face we put on for the world at large. The nineteenth century was a great era for novels and biographies but an iron discretion kept them in separate spheres. There could then be no equivalent of Citizen Kane, a made-up story that closely shadowed the life of a real person, or of film biographies, from Abel Gance's epic Napoleon of 1927 to Oliver Stone's equally grandiose Alexander, that laced history with the pulpy trappings of fiction. Hollywood has always had a ravenous appetite for material and an imperial confidence in its ability to reprocess the world into pictures that improved on the original. Nathanael West made a poker-faced mockery of this in The Day of the Locust as he described the disastrous filming of the Battle of Waterloo on a studio lot. But from the beginnings of the sound era, American movies pillaged history and biography for colorful life histories that could never have worked as well on the stage.</p>
<p>Up until the last election, after the unprecedented success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, it looked like the year of the political documentary. But the media wars ultimately had less influence than old-fashioned, get-out-the-vote campaigns, and by the end of the year most of the major American movies turned out to be "biopics," biographies of real people from the recent or distant past, from Jesus of Nazereth and Alexander the Great to Alfred C. Kinsey, Howard Hughes, and Ray Charles. There are many reasons for Hollywood's enduring attraction to potted biographies. Middlebrow to the core, they lend themselves to tintypes of period dress, vintage transportation, and exotic settings. With the help of a good location, a lavish set, intimate close-ups, and an expensive cast of stars and extras, even mediocre movies can achieve a verisimilitude beyond anything on the stage or page. Nor do these stories need to be strictly believable. Costume dramas, especially those set in the ancient world, often resemble animated cartoons; production design overwhelms personality. Though biopics sometimes celebrate a Man of the People (such as Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory) and even radicals or revolutionaries (as in The Life of Emile Zola, Spartacus, or Viva Zapata), their politics are basically conservative, because they are thoroughly devoted to the Great Man theory of history, to an unquestioned individualism, and their safely canonized troublemakers usually belong to a distant era.</p>
<p>Biopics first came into vog...</p>
<p /> | This Was Your Life | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/this-was-your-life | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>But the odds of that happening dropped precipitously.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s 16-page redone travel ban “to keep the bad dudes out” aims to stop people from six Muslim countries from entering the U.S. this year and suspends refugees from arriving for 120 days. But the order also includes a sweeping 55 percent reduction in refugee visas overall, from a planned 110,000 to 50,000 this year. Trump’s executive order had been set to take effect Thursday, but a federal judge put it on hold hours before it was to take effect.</p>
<p>Who are the 60,000 people who may have lost their chance to resettle in the U.S. by September? An Associated Press analysis of 10 years of refugee data suggests that their most common country of origin is not any of the six nations in the travel ban, but Myanmar, also known as Burma. Thousands, like Tin and her family, are Christians who were persecuted in their native country.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>These are people who can’t imagine living anywhere but the U.S.</p>
<p>“America is really our fatherland in terms of religion,” said Tin. “They sent their missionaries to our country and taught us to be Christians. And now we had to escape. All we want is to be safe.”</p>
<p>Christians face religious and political discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Its nascent democracy is heavily influenced by a military that ruled for half a century and remains at war with several ethnic groups, some of which are majority Christian.</p>
<p>Tin and her community fled Chin state, where Human Rights Watch says more than 90 percent of the residents were adhering to the tenets the American Baptist Church by 2009, pitting them against a military campaign to elevate Buddhism over all other religions.</p>
<p>Tin and others said that when they gathered for family prayers, people threw rocks at them. Soldiers busted into church services. They hid their precious Bibles for fear of attack.</p>
<p>Tin is one of more than 100,000 Christian Burmese refugees who fled the country of 51 million in recent years because of their beliefs. The family has been living out of suitcases in abject poverty in Malaysia ever since.</p>
<p>AP is only using single names of some individuals in this story out of concern for their security.</p>
<p>More than 160,000 Burmese, mostly Christian, have resettled in the U.S. in the past decade, more than any other nationality. They account for nearly 25 percent of new U.S. refugees since 2007.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In addition, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims await resettlement after being forced to flee Myanmar or be killed. Rights groups say that soldiers have killed Rohingya, raped women and torched homes in waves of violence against them that began in 2012.</p>
<p>Trump’s original order, and now his revamped “Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States,” both say that allowing more than 50,000 refugees into the U.S. this year “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”</p>
<p>There have been isolated incidents of refugees later accused in terror-related plots. An Iraqi refugee who entered the U.S. in 2009, for instance, pleaded guilty in Houston in October to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group. Two Iraqi refugees who lived in Kentucky are now in prison after having been convicted in a plot to send sniper rifles, Stinger missiles and money to al-Qaida operatives waging an insurgency back home. And the man accused in the November car-and-knife incident that injured 11 people at Ohio State University was a refugee originally from Somalia who, as an adolescent, moved with his family to the United States in 2014 after living in Pakistan.</p>
<p>There have been no terror attacks by Burmese in the U.S.</p>
<p>The reduction interrupted work that had been underway by federal law enforcement agencies and nonprofits around the world to issue 110,000 refugee visas to the U.S. in 2017. That would have been the highest number in decades. It was an attempt to put a small dent in the record 65 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons worldwide.</p>
<p>Nearly 38,000 have been admitted so far. Another 72,000 were preparing to arrive, hopefully before the fiscal year ends in September. Under the executive order, just 12,000 more would be allowed in, and only after a four-month suspension on all refugee arrivals.</p>
<p>The U.S. defines refugees as people of “special humanitarian concern to the United States” who have been persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.</p>
<p>An AP analysis found that nearly half the refugees who have arrived so far in fiscal year 2017 came from the seven majority Muslim countries named in the original executive order. Refugees from Syria, in particular, have arrived in greater numbers in the past twelve months. As they’ve taken up a greater number of resettlement visas, Burma’s share has dropped from 26 percent of all spots in 2015 to just 8 percent of the refugee caseload so far this fiscal year.</p>
<p>For the Burmese to make up the same proportion of refugees as they did last year, they’d have to receive roughly one-third — more than 4,000 — of the remaining refugee visas. In the first five months of fiscal year 2017, 3,000 Burmese resettled in the U.S.</p>
<p>The AP also found that Burmese refugees may not be the only ones shut out by the visa change. Data from the State Department show that refugees from Bhutan and Afghanistan have made up a far smaller proportion of people admitted to the U.S. in 2017 than in previous years, and would need to secure thousands of the remaining visas to match last year’s numbers.</p>
<p>“What we will see is that more and more people will be stuck in situations for even longer and literally be stranded,” said Julia Mayerhofer, acting secretary general of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network. “The human suffering of this will be tremendous.”</p>
<p>Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis if the secretaries of State and Homeland Security agree.</p>
<p>“The United States is committed to assisting people of all ethnicities, religions and nationalities who are fleeing persecution, violence, and other drivers of displacement,” said a State Department official in a statement issued on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.</p>
<p>The official said the fact that Trump didn’t just set the limit at the number already admitted implies an openness to allow refugees into the U.S.</p>
<p>“The safety and security of the American people is our highest priority,” he said.</p>
<p>Critics are concerned the policy may backfire.</p>
<p>“Barring these or other refugees into the U.S. will not make us safer, but it will make us less credible as a leading democracy and will fuel recruitment by terrorist organizations,” said political sociologist David Cook-Martín, a Grinnell College professor who studies migration and citizenship policy.</p>
<p>U.S. policy toward refugees has been historically inconsistent. But Becca Heller, who directs a refugee assistance project at the New York-based Urban Justice Center, says recent acceptances have allowed America to lead by example in matters of global humanitarian concern.</p>
<p>“Restricting refugee resettlement sends an alarming message to our nation’s international allies,” she said.</p>
<p>About 210,000 refugees, largely Vietnamese and Cambodians, came to the U.S. in 1980, the most in any year. Refugee arrivals dropped to less than 30,000 for a few years after 9/11 prompted strict new immigration rules. But they have increased fairly steadily since 2004, when President George W. Bush began admitting thousands of Somalis who lost homes to war or tsunami.</p>
<p>Refugee admissions rose to 85,000 last year; 45 percent were Muslim, 40 percent Christian. Since Trump took office in January, more than 7,700 have been admitted, and the religious breakdown has remained the same.</p>
<p>Major Burmese resettlement in the U.S. began in Bush’s last year, as they didn’t have ties to anti-American terrorism, were easy to vet, and were subject to brutal military rule in their Texas-sized Southeast Asian country wedged between Thailand and Bangladesh.</p>
<p>The journeys of these refugees begin in some of the poorest places on earth: remote villages and towns in strife-ridden regions of Myanmar. Some pay human smugglers upwards of $500 each for the two-week harrowing journey out.</p>
<p>Sang, 29, who learned English while studying for a theology degree, was put on a boat on the Myanmar coast with 18 people when he left seven years ago. The engine stopped mid-journey, he said, and they began taking on water in an area where refugee-laden vessels have capsized before.</p>
<p>“I thought, if we go down, no one in the world will ever know we existed,” he said.</p>
<p>Reaching Thailand’s shore, they hid in the jungle for days without food. Then, he said, they were squeezed into a car — he and another man shoved into the trunk — and driven for hours, starved for oxygen and terrified, to Malaysia. There, they were unceremoniously told to walk away.</p>
<p>His U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees card, he said, is his safety. It’s his key to resettling in the United States, and he doesn’t let it out of his sight.</p>
<p>At a cluttered desk in the cramped room that serves as a classroom by day and his home at night, Sang carefully read a copy of the executive order and then looked up, nodding slowly.</p>
<p>He said that while he agreed with the need to keep terrorists out of the U.S., “We are not terrorists, we are Christians. We will never be a problem in the United States. We will get educations, we will work hard. We only seek safety.”</p>
<p>In Thailand, an estimated 100,000 Burmese live in refugee camps near the border the countries share. The Thai government refused The Associated Press’ request to visit what they call “temporary shelters,” saying they are a restricted area.</p>
<p>In Malaysia there are about 130,000 Burmese refugees awaiting resettlement, about half Christian, half Muslim. They mostly live in the poorest neighborhoods of Kuala Lumpur, where makeshift plywood walls divide an ordinary two-bedroom apartment into a half dozen tiny, stifling family units, a stark contrast to city’s glimmering skyscrapers and posh shopping malls. They stay in the city for years, their meager belongings still in their baggage so they can be near U.N. offices and the U.S. Embassy if called in to get stamps on documents or meet with officials.</p>
<p>The fear and anxiety are constant, says Lidia, a 30-year-old single mother, holding back tears. She lives in a tiny, third-floor room with her 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, whose own suitcase pops open to reveal four teddy bears and a baby doll. These are Sarah’s daily companions, as her mother works 60 hours a week washing dishes in a restaurant.</p>
<p>They had hoped to go to the U.S. this year. Relief comes Saturday night at worship services, when they sing and pray with their pastor, also a refugee, in a nearby church that loans out the space.</p>
<p>Malaysia hasn’t signed the U.N. Convention on Refugees, so these people are living in the country illegally. Few are allowed to have jobs, though most work in a sub-official capacity. Their children cannot go to public schools, so volunteers, including refugees also waiting for visas, run their own education centers.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, Tin — the mother waiting for the embassy to call — dropped off her youngest son for a Saturday tutorial. A teacher wrote several words on the board, and asked students to come up with three descriptive phrases for each one.</p>
<p>Bauri Ram, 11, stared at his word, President.</p>
<p>“Donald Trump,” someone had written. “Help other people.”</p>
<p>His teacher nodded. A fan blew warm air around the room. Torn curtains fluttered. His classmates, on the floor, watched.</p>
<p>Bauri Ram picked up the blue marker. It squeaked as he formed his careful letters: “They help refugees.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Hoyer reported from Washington. Associated Press journalist Maureen Linke in Washington contributed to this report.</p> | Trump’s planned reduction in refugees may hit Myanmar worst | false | https://abqjournal.com/970150/trumps-planned-reduction-in-refugees-may-hit-myanmar-worst.html | 2017-03-16 | 2 |
<p>LendingClub Corporation (LC) will report its next earnings on Feb 06 AMC. The company reported the earnings of $0.03/Share in the last quarter where the estimated EPS by analysts was $0.03/share. Many analysts are providing their Estimated Earnings analysis for LendingClub Corporation and for the current quarter 15 analysts have projected that the stock could […]</p> | Revenue Estimates Analysis Of LendingClub Corporation (LC) | false | https://newsline.com/revenue-estimates-analysis-of-lendingclub-corporation-lc/ | 2018-01-09 | 1 |
<p>An Australian man living in rural Queensland claims to be Jesus reborn and, as he points out, “There were lots of people in the first century who didn’t believe I was the messiah and were offended by what I said, and in fact I died at the hands of some of them.”</p>
<p>Comedian Ricky Gervais is tickled by the man:</p>
<p>I love how a bloke claiming to be the son of god and gathering disciples is being referred to as dangerous and “a cult” by a vicar, Haha</p>
<p>— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) <a href="https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/339667194638135297" type="external">May 29, 2013</a></p>
<p />
<p>Watch “Jesus,” aka Alan John Miller, in his own words <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1096687/former-it-specialist-claims-to-be-jesus-reborn" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Peter Z. Scheer.</a></p> | Surprise: Jesus Lives in Australia | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/surprise-jesus-lives-in-australia/ | 2013-05-30 | 4 |
<p />
<p>The engineer at the controls of the train that smashed into a commuter rail terminal, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 people, told federal investigators he was going only 10 mph as he approached the station but has no memory of the crash, federal investigators said.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The statements from the engineer, Thomas Gallagher, came as investigators learned that an event data recorder that was supposed to record the New Jersey Transit train's speed and braking information wasn't functioning, according to the National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chair T. Bella Dinh-Zarr. Investigators haven't been able to extract a second data recorder, located in the cab control car in the front of the train, because it is under a collapsed section of the station's roof.</p>
<p>"It's likely that it's a newer event data recorder in the lead passenger car, the controlling car, so we're hopeful that will have information that will be functioning," Dinh-Zarr said at a Sunday news conference. "We'll just hope that the front event data recorder was working."</p>
<p>Federal regulations require commuter trains to have a working recorder in the lead car, according to Jim Southworth, the NTSB's lead investigator for the crash.</p>
<p>The regulations also require the recorders to be inspected every year. It was unclear when the recorders in the train were last inspected.</p>
<p>Federal officials said the recorder was an older device installed in 1995. An unknown number have had to be replaced over the years as they failed.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Gallagher told investigators that he was fully rested and that the train was operating properly Thursday morning before it crashed in Hoboken. Killed was Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, who had paused her legal career, leaving the software company SAP in Brazil after her husband got a job with an international liquor company.</p>
<p>The 48-year-old train engineer told federal investigators that he remembered blowing the train's horn and looking at the speedometer as he pulled into the station and said the train was going 10 mph, Dinh-Zarr said. But, Gallagher told the investigators that he had no memory of the crash and only remembered waking up on the floor of the engineer's cab, she said.</p>
<p>Officials said they hoped to be able to gain access to the front of the train in the coming days.</p>
<p>The signals on the tracks leading to the train terminal appeared to working normally and officials have so far found no track problem that would have affected the train's performance, the NTSB said. Investigators also obtained video from other trains in the station, but found nothing of value, Dinh-Zarr told reporters.</p>
<p>Months before Thursday's deadly train crash, federal rail officials found dozens of violations during an audit that focused on NJ Transit's safety and operations, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The official, who was familiar with the Federal Railroad Administration audit, wasn't authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>The audit was launched after the federal regulatory agency noticed an uptick in rail incidents and found "dozens of safety violations" that needed to be fixed immediately, the official said. The commuter rail agency was fined as a result.</p>
<p>A spokesman for NJ Transit hasn't responded to requests for comment.</p>
<p>On Monday, Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon called on federal and state railroad officials to give a public accounting of safety violations.</p>
<p>"It's very disturbing to learn that a data recorder pulled from the crashed NJ Transit train in Hoboken wasn't working. This is inexcusable," he said.</p>
<p>Since 2011, NJ Transit trains have been involved in more than 150 accidents that caused more than $4.8 million in damage to tracks or equipment and has paid more than $500,000 to settle safety violations, according to federal data.</p>
<p>Information from the Federal Railroad Administration shows that NJ Transit has settled 183 safety violations — ranging from employee drug and alcohol use to violations of railroad operating rules or practices — since Jan. 1, 2011.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in Philadelphia and Bruce Shipkowski in Trenton contributed to this report.</p> | New Jersey train engineer says he can't remember crash | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/03/new-jersey-train-engineer-says-cant-remember-crash.html | 2016-10-03 | 0 |
<p>In a viral Facebook Live video last week, a drunk Texan slurred his opinions of the supporting slogan of the Donald Trump campaign, “Make America Great Again.”</p>
<p>In a cowboy hat and a Texan accent, Isaiah Galloway admitted to having a few drinks and began his rant about the the “Make America White Again” slogan, saying America was never white to begin with.</p>
<p>“What is this s*** about, make America White Again… since when the f*** has America ever been white?” Galloway began.</p>
<p>He continued his rant by describing how he’d rather not get his haircuts at Supercuts, or live in a world without black women, NFL, NBA, stand-up comedy, and black people in general.</p>
<p>“That’s what makes America great,” he continued. “All the different mother****ers who live here. Different color, different culture, who gives a f***. I’m just sayin’.”</p>
<p>The drunk Texan then continued with a long, curse-embedded rant expressing his love for black women in particular:</p>
<p>I don’t wanna live in a world without black folks. I don’t. I love black women… To me, me personally, there’s nothing more attractive than a black woman. If you disagree, suck my d***, kiss my a**, I don’t give a f***. I don’t wanna hear no hate in the comments, none of that. It is what it is, you know, you got your own way you feel. I don’t wanna hear it. If you feel something different, make your own f***ing video on Facebook.</p>
<p>Galloway continued by saying America was created by people who came here and “killed the Indians,” emphasizing his “Irish ancestry” was not part of that.</p>
<p>The video, called “Make America white again… Wtf” reached 4.1 million views in less than one week.</p>
<p>“I don’t wanna live in a country without black women. I don’t wanna have to go to Supercuts. I don’t wanna watch basketball and the only thing people can do is a three-point shot,” Galloway said, ending his rant with, “I’m going to bed!”</p>
<p>The Texan’s video received widespread attention and positive feedback on social media. He responded to his newfound fame by creating a Facebook group called Tap Tern, where people post pictures, videos, and statements about their cross-racial relationships.</p>
<p>Follow Pardes Seleh on <a href="https://twitter.com/PardesSeleh" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Drunk Texan Loses Mind Over ‘Make America Great Again’ | true | https://dailywire.com/news/7785/drunk-texan-loses-mind-over-make-america-great-pardes-seleh | 2016-07-25 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — A motorist traveling northbound on U.S. 84/285 on Wednesday said he was forced off the roadway around 7:30 p.m. by a blue vehicle and shot at, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office reported.</p>
<p>The victim stopped on the highway shoulder and the other motorist pulled over, got out and fired on the victim but did not hit him.</p>
<p>The victim’s car was hit by several bullets. Investigators were called to the location.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Motorist reports attack, gunfire | false | https://abqjournal.com/323940/motorist-reports-attack-gunfire.html | 2 |
|
<p>Smith Electric Vehicles manufactures electric delivery trucks and <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/cars/smith-electric-vehicles-readies-itself-ipo.html" type="external">hopes to go public soon.</a> Customers include Coca-Cola, Frito Lay, Fedex, and more. EVs makes excellent fleet vehicles in cities. The cost of ownership is less than traditional vehicles and they can be recharged at night when rates are lower. Plus, of course, there are no emissions.</p> | Smith Electric Vehicles readies for IPO | false | https://ivn.us/2012/09/17/smith-electric-vehicles-readies-for-ipo/ | 2012-09-17 | 2 |
<p>On Tuesday, former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/05/report-ex-sheriff-david-clarke-go-work-trump-pac/633192001/" type="external">announced</a> that he has signed on to be a spokesman and senior advisor for pro-Trump super PAC <a href="http://americafirstactioncommittee.com/" type="external">America First Action Committee</a>.</p>
<p>Clarke <a href="" type="internal">resigned</a> from his post as sheriff last week and has since been rumored to eventually join the Trump Administration. There has yet to be confirmation on a position, but Clarke will be busy promoting President Trump's agenda for the time being with the PAC.</p>
<p>“It’s truly an honor to join the America First Action team, most importantly because we share the same values that most hard-working, law-abiding Americans do,” reads a statement from Clarke. “It gives me the chance to do what I love most — promote President Trump’s agenda, including his fierce support for the American law enforcement officer, and ensure the will of the American people who got President Trump elected is not derailed by the left or the self-serving Washington establishment.”</p>
<p>Brian Walsh, the president of the PAC, sang the praises of Clarke, a vocal supporter of Trump pre-election win and a speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention.</p>
<p>“David Clarke is an American patriot, and we are very proud to welcome him to America First,” said Walsh, on Tuesday. “Having spent a lifetime in law enforcement – protecting and serving his community and fighting for justice and the Second Amendment – Sheriff Clarke doesn’t just believe in making America safe again; he’s devoted his life to it.”</p>
<p>The PAC's mission statement, in part, <a href="http://americafirstactioncommittee.com/" type="external">reads</a>: "Donald Trump defied the odds and the pundits to become the forty-fifth President of the United States. He prevailed in the primaries and the general election in large part because of his unrelenting 'America First' platform and by the force of his personality. That put two significant battles in the win column, but the war has only just begun."</p> | Former Sheriff David Clarke Lands New Gig | true | https://dailywire.com/news/20680/former-sheriff-david-clarke-lands-new-gig-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2017-09-06 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Newsweek and the Daily Beast were lucky to be in the presidential reporting pool the night President Obama delivered his third State of the Union address to Congress. And what happens when the president gives a big speech? Washington dresses for the occasion. Limousines are shined, suits are pressed, security is out and the streets are closed for the presidents journey from the White House to Capitol Hill. The city's throngs of political reporters, meanwhile, salivate for advanced copies of the president's remarks. A look at Washington's most official night.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Bomb Technicians Ryan Dunham (R) and John Wisham (L) inspect the roof of the US Capitol on the eve of US President Barack Obama's annual State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress and the Supreme Court January 24, 2012.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>News networks turn the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall into a temporary television studio for coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>News networks turn the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall into a temporary television studio for coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Lights from the motorcade carrying President Barack Obama are reflected as the motorcade heads to the U.S. Capitol for the President to deliver the State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama, flanked by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., left, and House Majortity Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia arrives on Capitol Hill and readies to enter the Hall in order to give the State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama embraces retiring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., as members of Congress applaud before his State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>U.S. President Barack Obama greets Representative Gabrielle Giffords with a hug, before his State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama pauses before he delivers his State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Members of Congress read along as President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) watch as U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Warren Buffett's assistant Debbie Bosanek (L) sits in the First Lady's box with Jackie Bray, Process Operator at the Siemens Charlotte Energy Hub.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Journalists watch a television broadcast of U.S. President Barack Obama delivering his State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama pauses during the State of the Union address.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama waves after delivering the the State of the Union address.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>President Barack Obama signs autographs as he leaves the Capitol after delivering the State of the Union address.</p>
<p /> | State of the Union: The Night of a Big Speech | true | https://thedailybeast.com/state-of-the-union-the-night-of-a-big-speech | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>Intangible assets are non-physical assets on a company's balance sheet. These could include patents, intellectual property, trademarks, and goodwill. Intangible assets could even be as simple as a customer list or franchise agreement.</p>
<p>Some of these intangible assets have a finite useful life. While physical assets can wear down over time and lose value just from use, their intangible counterparts wear down through contract expirations, obsolescence, and other non-physical factors. If an intangible asset has a finite useful life, the company is required to amortize it, a process very similar to how physical assets are depreciated over time.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What does amortization actually mean? The process of amortization reduces the value of the intangible asset on the balance sheet over time and reports an expense on the income statement each period to reflect the change on the balance sheet during the given period.</p>
<p>Like depreciation, there are multiple methods a company can use to calculate an intangible asset's amortization, but the simplest is the straight-line method.</p>
<p>With the straight-line method, the company starts with the asset's recorded value, its residual value, and its useful life. The recorded value is the initial value assigned to the asset on the books, generally meaning its price or cost to create. Its residual value is the expected value of the asset at the end of its useful life. For most intangible assets, the residual value is zero as many intangible assets are considered worthless once they've been fully utilized. The useful life of the asset is the period of time over which the company expects the intangible asset to provide economic value to the business.</p>
<p>The mechanics of the amortization calculation are otherwise the same as calculating depreciation with the straight-line method. The company should subtract the residual value from the recorded cost, and then divide that difference by the useful life of the asset. Each year, that value will be netted from the recorded cost on the balance sheet in an account called "accumulated amortization," reducing the value of the asset each year. The income statement will show the reduction each year as an "amortization expense."</p>
<p>An example calculation of the amortization of an intangible asset Let's say that a company has developed a software solution to be used internally to better manage its inventory. The company does not intend to ever sell this software; it's only to be used by company staff. This software is considered an intangible asset, and it must be amortized over its useful life.</p>
<p>First, the company will record the cost to create the software on its balance sheet as an intangible asset. The software cost the company $10,000, in this case. Next, the company estimates that the software will have a useful life of just three years given the fast paced nature of software innovation. At the end of three years, the company reckons that their internal software will have no remaining value, so its residual value is therefore zero. The company will use the straight-line method to report the amortization of the software.</p>
<p>Subtracting the residual value -- zero -- from the $10,000 recorded cost and then dividing by the software's three-year useful life, the company's accountants determine the annual amortization for the software to be $3,333. Each year, the net asset value for the software will reduce by that amount and the company will report $3,333 in amortization expense.</p>
<p>Here's a breakdown of how the balance sheet and income statement will reflect this amortization over the three-year period.</p>
<p>When intangible assets should not be amortized Most physical capital assets will depreciate over time. Land is one of the rare examples where a physical asset should never be depreciated. For intangible assets though, it's much more common to have an asset than should not be amortized.</p>
<p>This derives from the fact that more intangible assets have indefinite useful lives than physical assets. If an intangible asset will continue to provide economic value without deterioration over time, then it should not be amortized. Instead, its value should be periodically reviewed and adjusted with an impairment.</p>
<p>Goodwill, for example, is an intangible asset that should never be amortized. If goodwill is to be changed, that should occur through the process of impairment, where the value of the asset is changed based on specific, changing conditions rather than based on a calculated schedule as would be the case with amortization. Goodwill is the portion of a business' value not attributable to other assets. Goodwill is a common result of acquisitions where the purchase price is greater than the fair market value of the assets and liabilities.</p>
<p>This article is part of The Motley Fool's Knowledge Center, which was created based on the collected wisdom of a fantastic community of investors. We'd love to hear your questions, thoughts, and opinions on the Knowledge Center in general or this page in particular. Your input will help us help the world invest, better! Email us at [email protected] . Thanks -- and Fool on!</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/2016/02/28/how-to-calculate-the-amortization-of-intangible-as.aspx" type="external">How to Calculate the Amortization of Intangible Assets Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | How to Calculate the Amortization of Intangible Assets | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/28/how-to-calculate-amortization-intangible-assets.html | 2016-02-28 | 0 |
<p>The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens falsely claimed the embassy closures in the Middle East and Africa proved that President Obama had wrongly characterized the current threat of terror in his May speech on national security, when in fact the president specifically referred to threats from al Qaeda affiliates in Africa and the Middle East against diplomatic facilities.&#160;</p>
<p>Following the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/terror-threat-embassy-closures-95179.html" type="external">announcement</a> that 19 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and Africa would remain closed throughout the week with hundreds of additional security forces <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/04/politics/us-embassies-close/index.html" type="external">deployed</a> to the U.S. Embassy in Yemen due to suspected terror threats, conservative media <a href="/blog/2013/08/05/its-never-too-soon-to-politicize-terror/195223" type="external">rushed to politicize</a> the effort to protect American lives, <a href="/blog/2013/08/05/fox-dismisses-security-experts-to-criticize-emb/195227" type="external">dismissing security experts</a> who praised the decision and <a href="/blog/2013/08/05/fox-uses-terror-threat-to-falsely-claim-obama-d/195240" type="external">falsely accusing</a> President Obama of failing to recognize the realities of the war on terror.&#160;</p>
<p>Stephens furthered these attacks in his August 5 Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968704578649913043517142.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop" type="external">column</a>, claiming that the embassy closures revealed "a threat that makes a comprehensive and vivid mockery of everything the president said" in Obama's <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university" type="external">speech</a> at the National Defense University on May 23. According to Stephens, the purpose of the president's national security speech was "to declare the war on terror won--or won well-enough--and go home," and the "facts and analysis" Obama used to discuss the nature of al Qaeda were proven "wrong" by the current situation in Yemen and the Middle East.</p>
<p>But Stephens ignored whole portions of Obama's speech in which he identified the very types of threats the intelligence community is working to avert. Obama's speech specifically <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university" type="external">referred</a>&#160;to al Qaeda affiliates in the Middle East and Africa -- including Yemen, Libya, and Syria -- as "the most active in plotting against our homeland" and acknowledged they posed "threats to diplomatic facilities and businesses abroad" (emphasis added):</p>
<p>Today, the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat.&#160; Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us.&#160; They did not direct the attacks in Benghazi or Boston.&#160; They've not carried out a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11.</p>
<p>Instead, what&#160;we've seen is the emergence of various al Qaeda affiliates.&#160; From Yemen to Iraq, from Somalia to North Africa, the threat today is more diffuse, with Al Qaeda's affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula -- AQAP -- the most active in plotting against our homeland.&#160; And while none of AQAP's efforts approach the scale of 9/11, they have continued to plot acts of terror,&#160;like the attempt to blow up an airplane on Christmas Day in 2009.</p>
<p>Unrest in the Arab world has also allowed extremists to gain a foothold in countries like Libya and Syria.&#160; But here, too, there are differences from 9/11.&#160; In some cases, we continue to confront state-sponsored networks like Hezbollah that engage in acts of terror to achieve political goals.&#160; Other of these groups are simply collections of local militias or extremists interested in seizing territory.&#160; And while we are vigilant for signs that these groups may pose a transnational threat,&#160;most are focused on operating in the countries and regions where they are based.&#160;&#160;And that means&#160;we'll face more localized threats like what we saw in Benghazi, or the BP oil facility in Algeria, in which local operatives -- perhaps in loose affiliation with regional networks -- launch periodic attacks against Western diplomats, companies, and other soft targets,&#160;or resort to kidnapping and other criminal enterprises to fund their operations.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>So&#160;that's the current threat -- lethal yet less capable al Qaeda affiliates; threats to diplomatic facilities and businesses abroad;&#160;homegrown extremists.&#160; This is the future of terrorism. We have to take these threats seriously, and do all that we can to confront them.&#160; But as we shape our response, we have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11.&#160;</p>
<p>Stephens concluded by attacking the media's "memory" of the speech, claiming the press had forgotten the realities of Obama's rhetoric in favor of praising the administration. But it's Stephens himself who seems to have forgotten whole sections of the speech that undermine his attack on the administration, which has worked to protect American lives by <a href="/blog/2013/08/05/fox-dismisses-security-experts-to-criticize-emb/195227" type="external">effectively</a> responding to a type of terror it identified as many as four months ago.</p> | WSJ's Stephens Selectively Cites Obama National Security Speech To Attack Embassy Closures | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/06/wsjs-stephens-selectively-cites-obama-national/195248 | 2013-08-06 | 4 |
<p>Investing.com – The dollar was little changed against a basket of the other major currencies on Friday after the release of some mixed U.S. economic reports, but the greenback ended September with its first monthly gain in seven months.</p>
<p>The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 92.91 late Friday.</p>
<p>For the week the index rose 0.99%, helping the greenback post a monthly gain of 0.27%, the first monthly increase since February.</p>
<p>The dollar slipped on Friday after data showing that in August. The data was offset by another report showing an unexpected increase in the Institute for Supply Management’s Chicago PMI.</p>
<p>The dollar had received a boost earlier in the week after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen indicated that the central bank was sticking to plans for and three in 2018.</p>
<p>Expectations that U.S. rates will rise help support the dollar by making U.S. assets more attractive to yield-seeking investors.</p>
<p>The dollar received an additional boost from after the Trump administration outlined plans for a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The dollar was slightly higher against the yen, with up 0.18% to 112.49 and ended the month with a gain of 2.02%.</p>
<p>The dollar was lower against the euro, with rising 0.26% to 1.1818, recovering from Thursday’s five-week low of 1.1716.</p>
<p>The euro came under pressure earlier in the week amid fears that political uncertainty Germany could hit the euro area’s economy and make closer euro zone integration more difficult.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level against the greenback in a month on Friday after data showed that Canadian economic growth ground to a halt in July, easing pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates again.</p>
<p>was up 0.33% at 1.2467 in late trade, after hitting a high of 1.2531.</p>
<p>, comments by Fed Chair Janet Yellen will be closely watched for further hints on the timing of the next rate hike. Friday’s U.S. jobs report will also be in focus.</p>
<p>Market watchers will be looking ahead to remarks by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Wednesday, while UK PMI data will offer further insight into the economic impact of Brexit.</p>
<p>Ahead of the coming week, Investing.com has compiled a list of these and other significant events likely to affect the markets.</p>
<p>Monday, October 2</p>
<p>Financial markets in China will remain closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>Japan is to publish its Tankan manufacturing and non-manufacturing indexes.</p>
<p>The UK is to release data on manufacturing activity.</p>
<p>In the U.S., the Institute for Supply Management is to publish its manufacturing index.</p>
<p>Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is to speak.</p>
<p>Tuesday, October 3</p>
<p>Financial markets in China will remain closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>Australia is to release data on building approvals.</p>
<p>The Reserve Bank of Australia is to announce its benchmark interest rate and publish a rate statement which outlines economic conditions and the factors affecting the monetary policy decision.</p>
<p>Financial markets in Germany will be closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>The UK is to release data on construction activity.</p>
<p>Fed Governor Jerome Powell is to speak at an event in Washington.</p>
<p>Wednesday, October 4</p>
<p>Chinese financial markets will be closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>The UK is to release data on service sector activity.</p>
<p>The U.S. is to release the ADP nonfarm payrolls report for September, while the ISM is to release its non-manufacturing PMI.</p>
<p>ECB head Mario Draghi is due to speak in Frankfurt.</p>
<p>Later in the day, Fed Chair Janet Yellen is to speak at an event in St. Louis.</p>
<p>Thursday, October 5</p>
<p>Chinese financial markets will be closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>Australia is to release data on retail sales and the trade balance.</p>
<p>The ECB is to publish the minutes of its latest meeting.</p>
<p>Canada is to release data on the trade balance.</p>
<p>The U.S. is to release a string of reports, including figures on jobless claims, trade and factory orders.</p>
<p>Fed Governor Jerome Powell and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker are both due to speak at an event in Austin.</p>
<p>Friday, October 6</p>
<p>Financial markets in China will remain closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>The UK is to release private sector data on house price inflation.</p>
<p>Canada is to publish its monthly employment report along with the Ivey PMI.</p>
<p>The U.S. is to round up the week with the non-farm payrolls report for September</p>
<p>New York Fed President William Dudley and Dallas President Robert Kaplan are also to speak.</p> | Forex – Weekly Outlook: October 2 – 6 | false | https://newsline.com/forex-weekly-outlook-october-2-6/ | 2017-10-01 | 1 |
<p />
<p>A conversation with Robert Thurman</p>
<p>When the Dalai Lama Accepted the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global human rights — particularly for his ceaseless efforts to free his country from Chinese rule — he referred to himself as “a simple monk from Tibet.” But His Holiness is also the spiritual and political leader of 6 million Tibetans, who believe him to be the 14th earthly incarnation of the heavenly deity of compassion and mercy. Like his 13 predecessors, he works for the regeneration and continuation of the Tibetan Vajrayana branch of Buddhist tradition.</p>
<p>Born in 1935, Tenzin Gyatso was recognized at the age of 2 as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, and by age 19 he was negotiating with China’s Mao Tse-tung over the future of Tibet, which China invaded in 1950 and has occupied ever since. After years of failed peace talks and a violent suppression of Tibet’s resistance movement in which tens of thousands of Tibetans died, the Dalai Lama fled in 1959 to Dharamsala, India, where he continues to be the spiritual leader of Tibet’s people and heads Tibet’s government-in-exile.</p>
<p>Robert A. F. Thurman was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1964 by the Dalai Lama. He is currently the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. A respected scholar and translator of Tibetan and Sanskrit, Thurman is also the author of Essential Tibetan Buddhism (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) and the forthcoming Inner Revolution: The Politics of Enlightenment (Riverhead Books, 1998). As the co-founder and president of Tibet House New York, Thurman has worked closely with the Dalai Lama on making Buddhism accessible to Americans and on educating the West about Tibet’s political struggles against China. Today, Buddhism is flourishing in America: The religion has an estimated 1.5 million followers. Meanwhile, Tibet has captured the attention of Hollywood through Richard Gere and other celebrity Buddhists who have helped raise money for and awareness about Tibet’s plight. This fall a pair of films about Tibet’s spiritual and political history — Kundun, directed by Martin Scorsese, and Seven Years in Tibet, starring Brad Pitt — hit the screens.</p>
<p>The following conversation took place at His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala in August.</p>
<p>Robert Thurman: Is there something about America that makes so many people seek out and practice Buddhism?</p>
<p>His Holiness the Dalai Lama: I don’t know. Why are you so interested? [Laughs] No, seriously, I feel that Americans are interested because they are open-minded. They have an education system that teaches them to find out for themselves why things are the way they are. Open-minded people tend to be interested in Buddhism because Buddha urged people to investigate things — he didn’t just command them to believe.</p>
<p>Also, your education tends to develop the brain while it neglects the heart, so you have a longing for teachings that develop and strengthen the good heart. Christianity also has wonderful teachings for this, but you don’t know them well enough, so you take interest in Buddhism! [Laughs] Perhaps our teachings seem less religious and more technical, like psychology, so they are easier for secular people to use.</p>
<p>Thurman: Some people say that you have to follow the religions of your own culture. Is it really a good idea to adopt a religion or spiritual practice foreign to one’s culture?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: I always say that people should not rush to change religions. There is real value in finding the spiritual resources you need in your home religion. Even secular humanism has great spiritual resources; it is almost like a religion to me. All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment. So merely changing formal religious affiliations will often not help much. On the other hand, in pluralistic, democratic societies, there is the freedom to adopt the religion of your choice. This is good. This lets curious people like you run around on the loose! [Laughs]</p>
<p>Thurman: Your Holiness has said that in the future, when Tibet is free, you would cease to be the head of the government of Tibet. Is this because you would like to introduce the democratic principle of the separation of church and state to your nation?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: I firmly believe democratic institutions are necessary and very important, and if I remained at the head of government, it could be an obstacle to democratic practice. Also, if I were to remain, then I would have to join one of the parties. If the Dalai Lama joins one party, then that makes it hard for the system to work.</p>
<p>Up to now my involvement in the Tibetan freedom struggle has been part of my spiritual practice, because the issues of the survival of the Buddha Teaching and the freedom of Tibet are very much related. In this particular struggle, there is no problem with many monks and nuns, including myself, joining. But when it comes to democratic political parties, I prefer that monks and nuns not join them — in order to ensure proper democratic practice. The Dalai Lama should not be partisan either, should remain above.</p>
<p>Finally, personally, I really do not want to carry some kind of party function. I do not want to carry any public position.</p>
<p>Thurman: But how about serving like the king of Sweden or the queen of England — as a constitutional Dalai Lama? As a ritual head, serving a unifying role? Would you consider this, if the people requested it?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: [Laughs heartily] I don’t think so. I don’t want to be a prisoner in a palace, living in such a constricted way — too tight! Of course, if there were really serious consequences if I did not accept, then of course I would do whatever was necessary. But in general I really prefer some freedom. Maybe, just maybe, I would like to become a real spiritual teacher, a working lama!</p>
<p>Thurman: You’ve said you have a “comparatively better heart now” due to your exile. What has exile done for you?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways — either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. Thanks to the teachings of Buddha, I have been able to take this second way. I have found a much greater appreciation of Buddhism because I couldn’t take it for granted here in exile. We have made a great effort to maintain all levels of Buddhist education; it has helped us have a kind of renaissance, really.</p>
<p>Thurman: In the current conflict in Sri Lanka between the Buddhist majority and the separatist Hindu Tamil Tigers — a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives since it began 14 years ago — many have found ways to justify the continuing involvement of Buddhists, including Buddhist clergy, in the violence. Essentially, the argument is that the kind of pacifism you advocate doesn’t work in the real world, and that to let the enemy destroy Buddhist monuments and temples and kill Buddhists without fighting back is simply intolerable.</p>
<p>The loss of your own nation to China has been used as an example of the futility of nonviolence and tolerance. When is something worth fighting for?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: This is hard to explain. In our own case, we don’t consider the loss of a monastery or a monument the end of our entire way of life. If one monastery is destroyed, sometimes it happens. Therefore, we don’t need to respond with desperate violence. Although under particular circumstances, the violence method — any method — can be justified, nevertheless once you commit violence, then counterviolence will be returned. Also, if you resort to violent methods because the other side has destroyed your monastery, for example, you then have lost not only your monastery, but also your special Buddhist practices of detachment, love, and compassion.</p>
<p>However, if the situation was such that there was only one learned lama or genuine practitioner alive, a person whose death would cause the whole of Tibet to lose all hope of keeping its Buddhist way of life, then it is conceivable that in order to protect that one person it might be justified for one or 10 enemies to be eliminated — if there was no other way. I could justify violence only in this extreme case, to save the last living knowledge of Buddhism itself.</p>
<p>For Tibetans, the real strength of our struggle is truth — not size, money, or expertise. China is much bigger, richer, more powerful militarily, and has much better skill in diplomacy. They outdo us in every field. But they have no justice. We have placed our whole faith in truth and in justice. We have nothing else, in principle and in practice.</p>
<p>We have always been a nation different from the Chinese. Long ago we fought wars with them. Since we became Buddhist, we have lived in peace with them. We did not invade them. We did not want them to invade us. We have never declared war on China. We have only asked them to leave us in peace, to let us have our natural freedom. We have always maintained that our policy is nonviolence, no matter what they do. I only escaped from Tibet because I feared my people would resort to desperate violence if the Chinese took me as their prisoner.</p>
<p>Thurman: How does one counteract violence without hatred or anger?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: The antidote to hatred in the heart, the source of violence, is tolerance. Tolerance is an important virtue of bodhisattvas [enlightened heroes and heroines] — it enables you to refrain from reacting angrily to the harm inflicted on you by others. You could call this practice “inner disarmament,” in that a well-developed tolerance makes you free from the compulsion to counterattack. For the same reason, we also call tolerance the “best armor,” since it protects you from being conquered by hatred itself.</p>
<p>It may seem unrealistic to think we can ever become free from hatred, but Buddhists have systematic methods for gradually developing a tolerance powerful enough to give such freedom. Without mutual tolerance emerging as the foundation, terrible situations like those of Tibet and Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Rwanda, can never be effectively improved.</p>
<p>Thurman: You use the term “cultural genocide” to describe what China is doing in Tibet but have suggested that Tibet could live with self-rule within China. How do you define self-rule, and what are its advantages over independence?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: Today, due to the massive Chinese population transfer, the nation of Tibet truly faces the threat of extinction, along with its unique cultural heritage of Buddhist spirituality. Time is very short. My responsibility is to save Tibet, to protect its ancient cultural heritage. To do that I must have dialogue with the Chinese government, and dialogue requires compromise. Therefore, I’m speaking for genuine self-rule, not for independence.</p>
<p>Self-rule means that China must stop its intensive effort to colonize Tibet with Chinese settlers and must allow Tibetans to hold responsible positions in the government of Tibet. China can keep her troops on the external frontiers of Tibet, and Tibetans will pledge to accept the appropriate form of union with China.</p>
<p>Because my main concern is the Tibetan Buddhist culture, not just political independence, I cannot seek self-rule for central Tibet and exclude the 4 million Tibetans in our two eastern provinces of Amdo and Kham. [Once part of an independent Tibet, Amdo is now known to the Chinese as Qinghai; Kham has been divided into the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan. — Eds.]</p>
<p>I have been clear in my position for quite a while, but the Chinese have not responded. Therefore, we are now in the process of holding a referendum on our policy among all the Tibetan community in exile and even inside Tibet, to check whether the majority thinks we are on the right track. I am a firm believer in the importance of democracy, not only as the ultimate goal, but also as an essential part of the process.</p>
<p>Thurman: To your mind, once self-rule is achieved, who should be in charge of the economic development of Tibet — the Chinese or Tibetans?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: Tibetans must take full authority and responsibility for developing industry, looking from all different perspectives, taking care of the environment, conserving resources for long-term economic health, and safeguarding the interests of Tibetan workers, nomads, and farmers. The Chinese have shown interest only in quick profits, regardless of the effect on the environment, and with no consideration of whether a particular industry benefits the local Tibetans or not.</p>
<p>Thurman: What is the environmental condition of Tibet today, 47 years after the Chinese invasion?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: The Chinese have clear-cut over 75 percent of our forests, thereby endangering the headwater regions of their own major rivers. They have overharvested the rich resources of medicinal herbs and caused desertification of our steppes through overgrazing. They have extracted various minerals in environmentally destructive ways. Finally, in their frenzied effort to introduce hundreds of thousands of new settlers into south central Tibet, they are threatening to destroy the ecosystem of that rich barley-growing region by draining its major lake to produce hydroelectric power.</p>
<p>Thurman: What do you think it will take for China to change its policy toward Tibet?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: It will take two things: first, a Chinese leadership that looks forward instead of backward, that looks toward integration with the world and cares about both world opinion and the will of [China’s] own democracy movement; second, a group of world leaders that listens to the concerns of their own people with regard to Tibet, and speaks firmly to the Chinese about the urgent need of working out a solution based on truth and justice. We do not have these two things today, and so the process of bringing peace to Tibet is stalled.</p>
<p>But we must not lose our trust in the power of truth. Everything is always changing in the world. Look at South Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East. They still have many problems, setbacks as well as breakthroughs, but basically changes have happened that were considered unthinkable a decade ago.</p>
<p>Thurman: You speak about how the Buddha always emphasized the rational pursuit of truth. “He instructed his disciples to critically judge his words before accepting them. He always advocated reason over blind faith.” Coming from a late 20th-century belief that there is no Truth, only contingent truths, how are we to imagine what the Buddha meant by “truth” in contemporary terms?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: Buddha was speaking about reality. Reality may be one, in its deepest essence, but Buddha also stated that all propositions about reality are only contingent. Reality is devoid of any intrinsic identity that can be captured by any one single proposition — that is what Buddha meant by “voidness.” Therefore, Buddhism strongly discourages blind faith and fanaticism.</p>
<p>Of course, there are different truths on different levels. Things are true relative to other things; “long” and “short” relate to each other, “high” and “low,” and so on. But is there any absolute truth? Something self-sufficient, independently true in itself? I don’t think so.</p>
<p>In Buddhism we have the concept of “interpretable truths,” teachings that are reasonable and logical for certain people in certain situations. Buddha himself taught different teachings to different people under different circumstances. For some people, there are beliefs based on a Creator. For others, no Creator. The only “definitive truth” for Buddhism is the absolute negation of any one truth as the Definitive Truth.</p>
<p>Thurman: Isn’t that because it is dangerous for one religion to consider it has the only truth?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: Yes. I always say there should be pluralism — the concept of many religions, many truths. But we must also be careful not to become nihilistic.</p>
<p>Thurman: How do you feel about the state of the world as we approach the 21st century?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: I am basically optimistic. And I see four reasons for this optimism. First, at the beginning of this century, people never questioned the effectiveness of war, never thought there could be real peace. Now, people are tired of war and see it as ineffective in solving anything.</p>
<p>Second, not so long ago people believed in ideologies, systems, and institutions to save all societies. Today, they have given up such hopes and have returned to relying on the individual, on individual freedom, individual initiative, individual creativity.</p>
<p>Third, people once considered that religions were obsolete and that material science would solve all human problems. Now, they have become disillusioned with materialism and machinery and have realized that spiritual sciences are also indispensable for human welfare.</p>
<p>Finally, in the early part of this century people used up resources and dumped waste as if there were no end to anything, whereas today even the smallest children have genuine concern for the quality of the air and the water and the forests and animals.</p>
<p>In these four respects there is a new consciousness in the world, a new sensitivity to reality. Based on that, I am confident that the next century will be better than this one.</p>
<p>Thurman: Do you see Tibet as part of that new century?</p>
<p>Dalai Lama: Of course, of course. We are working as hard as we can; we are preparing ourselves as carefully as we can; we fully intend to make our contribution to the world in the coming century.</p>
<p /> | The Dalai Lama | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/1997/11/dalai-lama/ | 2018-11-01 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The gelding was the dead-heat winner of the Ruidoso Futurity and was second in the Rainbow Futurity earlier this summer.</p>
<p>Jockey Cipriano Uscanga Vidana will ride him out of the No. 5 post in the 440-yard sprint. Wes Giles is the trainer.</p>
<p>Hawkeye (7-2), the son of One Dashing Eagle, is unbeaten in three starts. He is trained by James Padgett II.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Giles also trains Bigg Daddy (9-2). The New Mexico-bred gelding won the Zia Futurity. G.R. Carter Jr. will ride.</p>
<p>Fly Baby Fly (5-1), a daughter of One Famous Eagle, ran fourth in the Rainbow Futurity.</p>
<p>Hotstepper (8-1) is trained by Sleepy Gilbreath and will have Cody Jensen aboard.</p>
<p>Post time is 5:18 p.m.</p>
<p>Television coverage of the race includes RIDE TV on Dish channel 248 and KASA Fox.</p>
<p>The races will be available online through www.raceruidoso.com and www.aqha.com/racing.</p>
<p>The Downs at Albuquerque will offer simulcast wagering.</p>
<p>$3 million All American Futurity</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Horse&#160;&#160; &#160;Jockey Morning Line</p>
<p>1-Mr Secret Glory&#160;&#160; &#160;Ricky Ramirez 15-1</p>
<p>2-Dash For Stone&#160;&#160; &#160;Roberto Valero 30-1</p>
<p>3-Believe Me Irene&#160;&#160; &#160;Jose Luis Enriquez 20-1</p>
<p>4-Hes Limitless&#160;&#160; &#160;Agustin Silva 10-1</p>
<p>5-Uptown Dynasty&#160;&#160; &#160;Cipriano Uscanga Vidana 5-2</p>
<p>6-Fly Baby Fly&#160;&#160; &#160;Jose Amador Alvarez 5-1</p>
<p>7-Bigg Daddy&#160;&#160; &#160;G.R. Carter Jr. 9-2</p>
<p>8-Hawkeye&#160;&#160; &#160;Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo 7-2</p>
<p>9-Hotstepper&#160;&#160; &#160;Cody Jensen 8-1</p>
<p>10-Shakem Bye Perry&#160;&#160; &#160;Omar Reyes 15-1</p> | $3 million All American Futurity at the gate | false | https://abqjournal.com/1058062/3-million-all-american-futurity-at-the-gate.html | 2 |
|
<p>Glen Ford is a distinguished radio-show host and commentator. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted America's Black Forum, the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. In 1987, Ford launched Rap It Up, the first nationally syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. Ford co-founded the <a href="http://www.blackcommentator.com" type="external">Black Commentator</a> in 2002 and in 2006 he launched the <a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/" type="external">Black Agenda Report</a>. Ford is also the author of The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> EZE JACKSON: For the Real News Network, I'm Eze Jackson. Protests in St. Louis entered a fourth day after a weekend where thousands took to the streets following the acquittal of St. Louis police officer, Jason Stockley for killing 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith in 2011. Over 80 people were arrested on Sunday alone during the demonstrations, which began on Friday. Smith, who prosecutors argued was unarmed, fled from Stockley and his partner after being suspected of a drug deal in December of 2011. In police recordings of the incident, Stockley can be heard saying he was going to kill the suspect. Smith was shot five times and pronounced dead on the scene.
<p /> Joining us to discuss this is Glen Ford. Glen Ford is the Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report and also the author of "The Big Lie." Thanks for joining us, Glen.
<p />GLEN FORD: Thank you. It's good to be working with you.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Yes, sir. Glen, I want to start by getting your response to what the Circuit Judge, the Circuit Court Judge, Timothy Wilson said when he ruled in the officer's favor on Friday. He said, quote, "An urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly." What's your response to this?
<p />GLEN FORD: That's the most important quote and it reveals volumes. It goes to the heart of the criminal injustice system in the United States.
<p /> First of all, what's been going on in the streets of St. Louis over the past couple of days is all about power. It is not about justice, and if you don't believe that, then just ask the police. The corporate media have been reporting that formations of cops were chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets," as they swept demonstrators off of those streets and the interim Police Chief himself declared, and I'm quoting him here, "I'm proud to tell you the city of St. Louis is safe and police owned tonight." In other words, the police own the streets. It's their streets, like they said. Those are the words of an occupying army, and those words have nothing to do with justice.
<p /> As far as the protesters are concerned, this judicial system also has nothing to do with justice, and we're talking about that system as personified by the judge who you quoted. That judge believed the police officer's claim that he shot Mr. Smith because Smith had a gun, even though that gun didn't have any of Mr. Smith's DNA on it. It had the cop's DNA on it. But the judge said that he couldn't believe that the cop would have killed Mr. Smith and that an unarmed drug dealer is an anomaly. Of course, Mr. Smith was not arrested for drug dealing either, in which case, why do we even need judges?
<p /> A colleague of mine, Omali Yeshitela, who is Chairman of the Black is Back Coalition. The Black is Back Coalition led one of the contingents in those demonstrations in St. Louis this weekend. He said that if the cops can execute anybody that they claim is armed simply by also claiming that they're dealing in drugs, then there's really no need for judges. And it's really all about raw power, which is what the cops were talking about when they were chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets." In other words, justice without power is just a mirage.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Yeah. The St. Louis police officers have a history. I mean, police officers killing Black men is no new thing, but St. Louis police officers, they have been killing Black men in a rate higher than the national average. According to the website MappingPoliceViolence.org, St. Louis Police Department has the second highest rate behind Oklahoma. The St. Louis area including Ferguson, which is just a few miles away, is also among the most segregated cities in the country.
<p /> Does the anger of the acquittal also reflect frustration at the systemic forms of oppression? Are the people of St. Louis fed up right now?
<p />GLEN FORD: Well, Black folks all over the country are fed up and they're fed up with the same crimes being committed in their streets as are committed in the St. Louis streets. Probably the rate of police atrocities against Blacks is relatively higher in St. Louis because the ground is so heavily contested. That is, White folks in general are contesting the geography. Ferguson becomes a heavily contested area because it was a White suburb to which White folks fled as St. Louis became blacker, and then Black folks followed them there, and that is a pattern around the country, and the armed defenders of White space, the cops, reacted to that with typical escalation of their violence.
<p /> Yeah. That's an indication that the space in the St. Louis area is heavily contested, heavily defended by folks who want to keep it as White as possible, and even if not White inhabited, controlled by White cops or controlled by cops who answer to rich White people.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Right. You talk about the police imposing their violence. This situation is also sparking more hate from Alt Right groups. The hashtag "Gas the Synagogue" started trending on Twitter after news of a rabbi opening his synagogue to house protestors escaping tear gas. How dangerous is it to send this kind of message and support to the St. Louis Police Department now?
<p />GLEN FORD: Well, if you're talking about the Alt Right, part of their peculiar ideology is that the Jews are so dangerous because they provide the brains to Black folks. Remember these white supremacists don't think the Black folks have the intelligence to lead their own movement and that it is Jews who are whispering in their ear and giving directions. Even when they commit these acts of terror against Jews, it's also directed against Blacks, since they think that Jews are directing Black folks.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Right. I'm from Baltimore and we saw that the city stopped being ignored after Freddy Gray, after the Uprising and people took to the streets. Now again, I'm seeing people are condemning the destruction of property by protesters, but on the second night a store owner whose window had been busted open told the AP, "The window is not murdered." Do you think violent protests are justified in a situation like this?
<p />GLEN FORD: I think that people have a right to secure their lives and that these cops are dangers to the life and limb of all Black people, that this thing they call justice is not that. It's the arbitrary and capricious use of violence, and you can't tell people not to use violence when they've subjected to violence, and even those folks whose philosophy is nonviolence, justify it mainly, unless it's in religious terms, in which case your religion is yours. But it's usually justified in political terms as being a way to avoid violence against the oppressed people in the future. In other words, to embarrass the violent state authority by not resisting.
<p /> Well, I think that the '60s and the great strides that we made during that decade were at least as much because of our violence and our contemplation of violence as it was about our Gandhian kinds of methods.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Like you said earlier Glen, I think Black people all over the country are getting frustrated and tired of hearing the same story. It seems every other week there's an officer being cleared of murder. What has to happen for this to actually change?
<p />GLEN FORD: Well, the question really should be what should Black folks be demanding? What kind of system do we want established? Clearly, this is a system that does not serve us. It produces and nurtures judges who do not even respect the laws that they are sworn to uphold. It is a rotten system that has rotten purposes and we must escape that system.
<p /> What we need is the democratic fulfillment of the democratic demand of Black community control of the police, with the ultimate aim of Black folks providing their own security, and then we won't have to argue about whether people need to go to racial sensitizing sessions. They'd actually live in the community and much more than likely be of that community, and accountable to that community through democratic procedures.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Well, we're going to continue to follow this, Glen. Thanks for coming on and talking to us today.
<p />GLEN FORD: Thank you.
<p />EZE JACKSON: Thank you for joining us. Again, we'll continue to follow this story here in St. Louis. This is The Real News Network. | White Police, Black Unarmed Suspects | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/story%3A20016%3AWhite-Police%252C-Black-Unarmed-Suspects | 2017-09-19 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The “Aggies United” event was put together after Richard Spencer, who is a leader in the “alt-right,” — a movement that mixes racism, white nationalism and populism — was invited to speak on Dec. 6 by a former student.</p>
<p>The unity event will be held at the university’s football stadium and officials expect students, faculty and staff as well as people from the local community to attend, said A&amp;M spokeswoman Amy Smith. Spencer will be speaking at the Memorial Student Center, which is within walking distance of the football stadium.</p>
<p>“We’re excited about the event … because it will really be an opportunity to energize and be unified with our disgust really for this person who is not affiliated with our school,” Smith said. Speakers for the event and other details are still being finalized, she said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Spencer is set to speak at the invitation of the ex-student, Preston Wiginton, who as a member of the public can rent meeting space available on campus. Wiginton has been described as a white power activist by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has previously invited other white nationalists to speak on campus.</p>
<p>The National Policy Institute, Spencer’s group, drew headlines for its recent gathering in Washington, D.C., where some attendees mimicked the Nazi salute as they celebrated the presidential election of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>In a Nov. 22 interview with The New York Times, Trump denounced the white supremacist movement when asked, saying “I condemn them. I disavow, and I condemn.”</p>
<p>Spencer did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.</p>
<p>“We’re disappointed that A&amp;M is so closed minded they don’t want to come hear different points of view,” Wiginton said Wednesday. “One of the purposes of bringing controversial speakers to A&amp;M is so the students can engage with the controversial figure directly.”</p>
<p>A&amp;M President Michael Young said in a statement Tuesday that barring a breach of contract or unresolvable safety concerns, Spencer would not be prevented from speaking on campus, located about 100 miles northwest of Houston.</p>
<p>“Freedom of speech is a First Amendment right and a core value of this university, no matter how odious the views may be,” he said.</p>
<p>Young said he’s been heartened by the campus response against Spencer’s views and the “resounding affirmation that they do not represent the Aggie values we espouse and to which we aspire….”</p>
<p>Some individuals are organizing what they are calling a “silent protest” of Spencer, in which they plan to hold up signs which marching in front of the student center where he will be speaking.</p>
<p>Smith said as long as those individuals adhere to campus rules about such events, they won’t be prevented from protesting.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/juanlozano70" type="external">www.twitter.com/juanlozano70</a></p> | Texas A&M sets unity event during white nationalist’s speech | false | https://abqjournal.com/898833/texas-am-sets-unity-event-during-white-nationalists-speech.html | 2016-11-30 | 2 |
<p>The big engine sputtered to a stop and the pilgrim-laden wooden boat glides silently to a stop in the blue water. The only sounds are made by the gentle waves lapping playfully at the hull. Along with the others on board, I sit alone with my thoughts observing the Galilean hills surrounding this fresh-water lake, arguably the most famous in the world.</p>
<p />
<p>To some, the lake, or Sea of Galilee as it is usually called in Scripture, might look like any other. Fed by the Jordan River, the lake measures 4.5 miles, east to west, and some 13 miles from north to south. It is cool and clear. I’m told it’s about 150 feet deep and full of fish, although I can personally verify neither claim.</p>
<p>What makes the Sea of Galilee remarkable, of course, is what happened here in ancient times; and, in a sense, what has not happened in times modern. Because most of the land surrounding the lake is owned by local municipalities, the government of Israel or by the Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches, the shoreline has been kept almost pristine. Development at the water’s edge and even up the slopes of the surrounding hills has taken place only as necessity has required.</p>
<p>That said, from the lake I looked upon the same hills Jesus beheld. They have changed little. Biblical vignettes began to play themselves in the theater of my mind. Perhaps it was just over there that Peter, watching Jesus approach walking on the waves, accepted the Lord’s invitation to join him and stepped out of the boat and onto the water. And, only few feet further on is the place where he began to sink and cried out to be saved.</p>
<p>It would be easier to chide Peter for his lack of faith if even a single one of my water-walking attempts had ever proved even moderately successful.</p>
<p>And over there may have been where Jesus slept so soundly in exhausted slumber that the tossing boat, rocked by whipping winds and pounding breakers, failed to wake him. Finally, the experienced sailors reached the limits of their considerable skill and in desperation (and in some apparent anger) they awakened Jesus, seeking his intervention. “Don’t you care that we perish? How can you lie there sleeping?”</p>
<p>Jesus spoke a word to the wind demanding silence and the storm stilled.&#160; He then tossed a zinger of his own, finding it remarkable that they had such little faith.</p>
<p>I wonder how many times Christ has chided me for my little faith? More times than I know about, I’m sure.</p>
<p>It seems obvious to me, as I sit on that lake, that Jesus was saddened that the disciples still did not understand. God’s purpose required Jesus’ redemptive death and their participation in the telling of it. Therefore, their anxiety over their own well-being, even when death seemed certain, was unnecessary and unjustified. They just didn’t get it. I cannot escape asking myself, “Do I?”</p>
<p>There, in another place by the north shore, was where the disciples had fished all night without catching anything. Only a few days after that first Easter, their minds still struggled to accept the whole concept of resurrection as a reality.</p>
<p>When Peter announced that he was going fishing, was he merely seeking to assuage his grief and guilt by turning to something familiar, or did this fishing expedition signify something more to him and the disciples who accompanied him?</p>
<p>Perhaps Peter had been so despondent over his denial that his friends worried about him being out there on the lake alone. Could it be that in his mind the unlikely chapter in his biography called “Disciple” had come to a sudden tragic close and a new one called “Life Resumed” had begun? If so, their complete and utter failure to catch even a single sardine must have only heightened his sense of hopelessness.</p>
<p>From where I sit in the boat, I can see a church called the Primacy of Peter. Tradition says this is the place from which Jesus called to them, “Catching anything?” I think he already knew. He had already lit the fire to cook the catch he knew they would have—if they only believed and obeyed. He had even provided a few fish of his own for their breakfast.</p>
<p>I wonder if God engineered their failure that night to put them in a proper frame of mind to resume doing what he had called them to do? I suspect so because it seems obvious that he was now responsible for their fishing success. Regardless of the disciples’ confusion about their futures, he was still in control. That may have been the point.</p>
<p>I look back to the place I had imagined their boat. There, in obedience or perhaps only in appeasement to Christ’s admonishment to try fishing on the other side, they filled their nets with the haul. They counted 153 fish and John noted that they were large. No doubt, we should have seen the ones that got away.</p>
<p>In my mind I seethem there in that place and I watch as Jesus took Peter aside. “Do you love me,” he asked three times? Peter replied affirmatively though timidly. “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said. And with that, Peter was redeemed.</p>
<p>I wonder to myself, how could Jesus, the master story-teller, have failed to use a fishing metaphor? How natural it would have been to say, “Catch my fish!” or even “Feed my fish!” No, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee Jesus talked about sheep instead of fish. Suddenly it occurs to me that it could not have been by accident.</p>
<p>Jesus meant to draw a clear distinction between Peter’s past and future. Fishing was the past. His future would be devoted to the sheep of Christ’s pasture.</p>
<p>I wonder to myself, in my silent meditation, how many times I have opted for the familiar instead of pressing ahead into an uncertain future? People, pastors and even churches do it all the time choosing what does not threaten rather than having faith enough to accept something different. Being content with what is rather than pressing for what could be.</p>
<p>I wonder whether some of my failures are God’s attempt to steer me to his greater successes? I reflect on the times in my life when I wanted to abandon what seemed unreasonable or impossible to embrace something I could control. But I can’t control things, can I? Not really. Any more than Peter could control whether they caught fish that night.</p>
<p>To myself I affirm again, “He is Lord, he is Lord. He is risen from the dead and he is Lord!”</p>
<p>The growl of the engine announces the need to return to the 21st century, but I am going back with some altered perceptions, for I have been with Jesus.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">Jim White</a>, editor of the Religious Herald, is traveling in Israel.</p> | EDITORIAL: Meditations from the Sea of Galilee | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/editorialmeditationsfromtheseaofgalilee/ | 3 |
|
<p>The atmosphere at these demonstrations in the first few days after the election is one of impending apocalypse. It has a different feel than what I'm used to on college campuses and Black Lives Matter marches, which have the feel of a circus or Marx brothers comedy. The protests that are happening now go beyond the usual clowns who are always protesting, and this time it's real people with real fear for the future.</p>
<p>It is important to make such distinctions between real people and rabble-rousing astroturf. Rabble-rousers can be disregarded, since they would never challenge the NYPD. But with real people, anger and fear can lead to real consequences — for themselves and the city. They should be taken seriously, and their concerns addressed.</p>
<p>The problem is that — much like Hamas — the astroturfers use real people as human shields.</p>
<p>The image above — taken during the post-election anti-Trump protests — simultaneously shows the values of the Left at its finest and at its worst.</p>
<p>The sign says "Hands Off My P*ssy" — and she's right. Women deserve to be treated with respect, and bless the people who fight for and jealously guard women's right to live as equals, and with dignity.</p>
<p>Yet, a few feet away, is a man waving the Palestinian flag. The ruling Palestinian parties of both the Gaza strip and the West Bank reject the rights of women, the rights of minorities, the rights of children, the rights of dissenters, etc.</p>
<p>These two symbols are utterly incompatible with each other. One cannot sincerely believe in rights for women and support the Palestinian governmental bodies at the same time. The man carrying the Palestinian flag cannot truly care about the woman carrying the anti-sexual harassment sign. It is one, or the other.</p>
<p>Protesting in New York is different than protesting in California. First of all, it's cold. Secondly, the NYPD does not mess around — step out of line and you're under arrest. To brave the weather and the police, you have to believe in what you are demonstrating for. And yet here they are, side by side on Fifth avenue.</p>
<p>If I had my way, I would get hundreds of copies of George Orwell's book Homage to Catalonia to hand out to the good demonstrators. It exposes in full the folly of trying to work with totalitarian movements who do not care for the interests of anyone but themselves. They turned on the liberals the moment they attained the power to do so.</p>
<p>Liberals, if you won't trust this warning from an arch conservative like myself — or a foreign writer writing about a foreign land like Orwell in Spain — then heed the words of one of your own heroes, the civil rights pioneer, union leader and democratic socialist A. Philip Randolph. In reflecting on his betrayal by the Communist Party in the early 1940s, he declared that the civil rights movement "cannot logically and with sound wisdom tie up with a movement such as the Communist" because they followed their totalitarian goals "without regard to the national interests of any other group."</p>
<p>It was right here in New York where the democratic socialists and the communists fought over the future of their movement. Paul Berman writes in A Tale of Two Utopias that:</p>
<p>"Beginning in 1919, a Bolshevik faction split away from the Socialist Party of America and formed a Communist movement, and in the 1930s and '40s the Communist Party won a good deal of support and shaped the political imagination of any number of liberals and radicals who would never have acknowledged being under a Communist influence. But in America, Communism's rivals on the left fought back with a special intensity. ...</p>
<p>The battles between those two halves of the American left continued straight into the 1950s and even after, nowhere more violently than in New York. The biggest and strongest of the New York needle trades unions, the ILGWU, was built by the Socialists, but the Communists fought their way into power in the 1920s, and the Socialists and their allies among the labor anarchists fought their way back, and it was civil war on Seventh Avenue. The Communists filled Yankee Stadium for a rally; the Socialists, Madison Square Garden; and the wounds from those battles did not heal. On the topic of anti-Communism, the Socialists in a union like the ILGWU ended up strictly diehard."</p>
<p>The battle even extended to Intellectuals, resulting in the emergence of the "New York Intellectuals", a group of America's top socialist thinkers, like Sidney Hook, who — through sectarian battles with the Communists — came to be the leading anti-communist philosophers of the era and ardent supporters of American democracy.</p>
<p>It was these battles that shaped the Truman administration's response to Soviet aggression, which overcame the isolationism of Senator Robert Taft and devised a program that (with the catastrophic exception of China in 1949) stopped the march of totalitarianism dead in it's tracks.</p>
<p>This is the duality of New York values. The good left and the bad left. At some point they will figure out — like they have in the past — that they are not friends. That is when they will determine what their true values are.</p> | The Duality of New York Values in the Street | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10836/duality-new-york-values-street-spyridon-mitsotakis | 2016-11-16 | 0 |
<p>Dr. Bennet Omalu did not plan to be a sports safety advocate. How and why that happened animates his memoir, Truth Doesn’t Have a Side: My Alarming Discovery about the Danger of Contact Sports (Zondervan, 2017).</p>
<p>Former chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, Calif., and a clinical professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, Omalu’s life today contrasts sharply with being a malnourished infant during Nigeria’s Civil War. That start did not stop him. With support from his mother and father, he entered medical school at 16.</p>
<p>In 1994, Omalu arrived in the US. Eventually, he became a forensic pathologist. So far, so good describes his life. Then Omalu meets the National Football League, America’s most profitable and popular sport.</p>
<p>In 2002, when Omalu was working in the Allegheny County (Pa.) medical examiner’s office, he performed an autopsy of “Iron” Mike Webster, a former center for the Pittsburgh Steelers who died at age 50. Omalu, like Webster, battled depression. However, Webster’s depression was part of a total health crash that baffled family and friends.</p>
<p>They had no clue what happened to the man who anchored the Steelers’ offensive line to multiple Super Bowl championships in the 1980s. Omalu, who calls Webster “Mike,” sets the record straight in an autopsy that shows a trauma to tau protein, which supports and transports nutrients to and from brain cells and fiber.</p>
<p>Opponents’ repeated head strikes had fractured the skeleton of Webster’s brain cells and fiber, Omalu surmised, during a months-long investigation. In it, he uncovered an incurable brain condition, chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, in Webster. Later, Omalu published a peer-reviewed paper on Webster’s case in Neurosurgery, the first of many on the topic.</p>
<p>Omalu’s memoir details in part how and why the NFL fought his findings on CTE’s causes and effects. For example, the NFL accused Omalu of falsifying his research. He weathered that storm due to his faith and parents’ mentoring. Omalu is fond of quoting Scriptures to shed light on how he dealt with the NFL’s attacks. That might discourage some readers.</p>
<p>In 2005, not long after Webster’s demise, his teammate Terry Long, a guard, died after drinking a gallon of antifreeze. In an autopsy, Omalu found CTE in Long’s brain, and published a paper, “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player: Part II,” Neurosurgery 59.5 (November 2006).</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the NFL maintained there was no link between pro football and CTE in players. But that’s not what a major report in the Journal of American Medical Association, released July 25, 2017, concludes.</p>
<p>“In a convenience sample of 202 deceased players of American football from a brain donation program, CTE was neuropathologically diagnosed in 177 players across all levels of play (87%), including 110 of 111 former National Football League players (99%),” according to JAMA. CTE, a degenerative disease of the brain that results from traumatic injuries such as concussions, was present in younger football players, too: “3 of 14 high school (21 percent), [and] 48 of 53 college (91%)” athletes.</p>
<p>As a clinician, Omalu has pursued an “ask the workers” method of Dr. Bernardino Ramazzini, the founder of modern occupational medicine. He advises doctors to ask patients: “What is your occupation?” While athletes, youth through pros, do not share equally as wage earners, they are working in games and practices. Omalu partly examines what they did to learn what ailed them.</p>
<p>Will Smith played Omalu in the 2015 film Concussion. Currently, Omalu is on a mission to protect the brains of youth, future generations, from irreversible injuries such as CTE, through education and prevention. In this way, he seeks to protect young athletes from high-impact and high-contact sports—boxing, football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts, wrestling and rugby—that put their developing brains at-risk.</p>
<p>Allowing children “to engage in these contact sports,” Omalu writes, exposes, “him or her to the risk of permanent brain damage, which can manifest as CTE.” This sheet of music clashes with the sports status quo. I think that readers will find his case for reducing such athletic risk sensible.</p> | Sports Safety Advocacy | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/02/02/sports-safety-advocacy/ | 2018-02-02 | 4 |
<p>U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto spoke at a news conference Friday at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas to highlight a new report by the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research &amp; Policy.</p>
<p>The report, titled “Nevadans Will Lose Big Under Health Bills In Congress,” contends that the elimination of Medicaid expansion — key to the Republican Senate version of health care legislation designed to replace the Affordable Care Act — may cost more than 200,000 Nevadans to lose health insurance coverage.</p>
<p>The event was sponsored by Nevadans Together for Medicaid, a coalition of health care advocacy groups.</p> | Cortez Masto talks health care at UMC in Las Vegas | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/cortez-masto-talks-health-care-at-umc-in-las-vegas/ | 2017-07-07 | 1 |
<p>To get a head start preparing young children to read, and ultimately be successful in school, CPS is expanding its reading initiative to include pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and 1st-grade.</p>
<p>The move stems from an analysis of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills that showed younger students were coming to school with limited literacy skills. “In the primary grades, we found that word knowledge is a deficiency, so we want to make literacy a larger part of our younger children’s time,” says Albert Bertani, chief officer of professional development.</p>
<p>The district’s efforts to improve early childhood literacy skills will focus on teacher professional development, cross-training of faculty and coaching reading specialists.</p>
<p>CPS started its primary reading initiative in August, hosting a four-day literacy conference for early childhood teachers from 75 public schools and a half-day workshop on early literacy teaching strategies.</p>
<p>The latter was attended by 4,000 pre-K and kindergarten teachers from CPS and some state-subsidized early childhood programs.</p>
<p>Schools that participated in the four-day conference sent teams of pre-K, kindergarten and lst-grade teachers to learn how to cultivate children’s literacy skills through story-telling activities and integrating play and the arts. Back at their schools, the teams, with the assistance of a reading specialist, are expected to share the strategies with their early childhood colleagues.</p>
<p>CPS expects all preschool and primary grade teachers will be trained in three years. The primary reading initiative does not mandate a certain amount of daily reading instruction. (Grades 2 through 8 are required to teach reading two hours a day.) However, teachers are being asked to infuse their daily lessons with literacy skills, says Lucinda Lee Katz, chief officer of early childhood education.</p>
<p>Principals and area instructional officers will monitor reading progress at each school, and districtwide results will be tracked by the CPS Office of Curriculum Development.</p>
<p>Assessment tools that evaluate reading skills will be used to review progress, Katz says. And the district’s Early Literacy Framework, which focuses on goals like reading fluency, knowledge and comprehension, will guide teachers’ work, she adds. The framework was created last year by CPS administrators and teachers and emphasizes the Illinois Early Learning Standards, state benchmarks for what children should know at early stages of their development.</p>
<p>The district’s decision to target primary grade levels “is a good thing,” says Donna Ogle, a reading and language professor at National-Louis University and former president of the International Reading Association. “The first few years are critical, and there are so many things that can be done to develop literacy. Schools and teachers are now building on that.”</p> | New reading effort targets pre-school, primary grades | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/new-reading-effort-targets-pre-school-primary-grades/ | 2005-07-28 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The richest fifth of households in New Mexico earn nearly 10 times more on average than the poorest fifth, according to the report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. The wealthiest 20 percent earn an average of $161,162 a year, while the poorest 20 percent in New Mexico earn an average of $16,319. The top 5 percent earn an average of $273,494, according to the study.</p>
<p>“New Mexico’s gap between the richest households and the poorest was already larger than all but four states three decades ago,” said Elizabeth McNichol, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in a conference call Wednesday. “The uneven growth in the state since then has widened the gap even further.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Nationally, the richest fifth of households earned an average income of $164,494, or about eight times more than the bottom fifth of households, with an average income of $20,510.</p>
<p>The gap between rich and poor has widened in all 50 states since the late 1970s, according to McNichol.</p>
<p>The study was based on inflation-adjusted census data from four periods: the late 1970s, the late 1990s and the mid-and late 2000s. It does not include income from capital gains.</p>
<p>After New Mexico, states with the next largest income inequality are: Arizona, California, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois and Mississippi. For eight of those 10 states, the high inequality was driven by lower-than-average incomes among the poorest households, according to the report.</p>
<p>Gerry Bradley, research director for New Mexico Voices for Children, said there are some very high wage employers in New Mexico, including the national labs, that pay at the top of the wage scale. But there are also jobs, many in the tourism industry, that pay at or near the minimum wage.</p>
<p>“We have excellent jobs, good jobs, bad jobs and no jobs,” Bradley said. “No jobs are really contributing to the problem of inequality in New Mexico.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The rich, in New Mexico, are getting richer, while the poor are barely inching up in income.</p>
<p>Since the late 1970s, incomes of the poorest households in New Mexico grew by about $2,000, McNichol said, while those of the wealthiest climbed by an average $68,000.</p>
<p>New Mexico also has the biggest gap between middle and top earners. The middle fifth of New Mexico households earned $51,136, or about three times less than the top fifth, according to the report.</p>
<p>The report mentions several ways state policy makers could reduce inequality, including raising the minimum wage, strengthening unemployment insurance, making state taxes more equal across all income groups, making it easier to join unions and improving safety net programs such as Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>“Unequal growth is a problem for people of all ends of the income scale,” said McNichol. “If poor families and poor children don’t get the skills they need to move into the jobs of the future, that’s going to affect overall economic growth, which will affect people at all ends of the income scale.” — This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | N.M. Shows Largest Rich, Poor Gap | false | https://abqjournal.com/146328/nm-shows-largest-rich-poor-gap.html | 2012-11-15 | 2 |
<p />
<p>The Line: “The president’s sequester.”</p>
<p>The Party: Republican</p>
<p>Editor’s note: This is the first of an occasional series called “ <a href="" type="internal">Party Lines</a>” that will highlight misleading talking points by both parties.</p>
<p>This Republican talking point aims to blame President Obama for more than $1 trillion in automatic, across-the-board cuts in domestic and defense spending that — without action by Congress — are scheduled to take effect on March 1. House Speaker John Boehner, who <a href="http://boehner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=319797" type="external">said on Feb. 12</a> that “we are only weeks away from the devastating consequences of the president’s sequester,” has been using <a href="http://www.speaker.gov/video/speaker-boehner-democrats-fail-lead-while-gop-continues-taking-action-jobs" type="external">variations of the line</a> <a href="http://www.speaker.gov/video/speaker-boehner-highlights-republican-leadership-jobs-changing-washington" type="external">on his website</a> <a href="http://boehner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=308473" type="external">since at least</a>September 2012. He and congressional Republicans recently have taken to using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Obamaquester&amp;src=hash" type="external">#Obamaquester</a> on Twitter to fault the president for the looming cuts. But the reality is that the pending cuts would not be possible had both Democrats and Republicans not supported the legislation that included them.</p>
<p>Here’s the background: In the summer of 2011, when Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on a way to cut spending in exchange for increasing the federal government’s borrowing limit, legislators settled on the <a href="http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41965.pdf" type="external">Budget Control Act</a> instead. The law capped federal discretionary spending to save almost $1.2 trillion over a 10-year period, but also mandated that a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/post/debt-supercommittee-frequently-asked-questions/2011/11/13/gIQAC4e7HN_blog.html" type="external">bipartisan, 12-person congressional committee</a> find at least $1.5 trillion in additional cuts. If the committee failed to come up with a plan, another $1.2 trillion in cuts would occur automatically — half from defense spending and half from discretionary spending on domestic programs — through sequestration. The committee <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-11-21/news/35283546_1_debt-debate-national-debt-tame-debt" type="external">failed to reach an agreement</a>, and the automatic cuts will now begin in March if Congress doesn’t stop them.</p>
<p>In his book “The Price of Politics,” veteran journalist Bob Woodward of the Washington Post <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D1067F66-D48E-4ED7-B1B0-818EB6F2F5A8" type="external">wrote that it was</a>, in fact, Obama’s then-director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, and White House Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors who brought the idea of sequestration to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid before it was proposed to Republicans in Congress. That is <a href="http://www.republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/our-view?ID=c8fbb432-1dea-4b80-b615-a7f260990a51" type="external">the source of Republican claims</a> that this is “the president’s sequester.”</p>
<p>But as <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D1067F66-D48E-4ED7-B1B0-818EB6F2F5A8" type="external">Woodward wrote</a> in his book, and as <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D910910F-05B4-4327-B3F1-1715FD2E5DFF" type="external">he subsequently</a> explained to Politico, neither party wanted the automatic cuts to take effect or thought they would happen. The cuts were included as a mechanism to force members of the bipartisan committee to work out a deal to avoid them.</p>
<p>Politico, Oct. 23, 2012: “No one thought it would happen. The idea was to design something … that was so onerous that no one would ever let it happen. Of course, it did, because they couldn’t reach agreement,” [Woodward] said. “They all believed that the supercommittee was going to come up with a $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction plan, so there would be no sequestration. Of course, the supercommittee failed and so the trigger went off, which has all of these very Draconian cuts.”</p>
<p>The automatic cuts were supposed to take effect in January, but the president and Congress <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/budget-appropriations/275289-sequester-delay-keeps-defense-industry-in-limbo" type="external">agreed to delay them until March 1</a> to give themselves more time to work out a deal. Now, as the new deadline for sequestration draws closer, many Republicans blame the president. And though it’s true that the idea of sequestration originated in the White House, there would be no possibility of automatic cuts had members of Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — not gone along with the idea.</p>
<p>The Budget Control Act <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll690.xml" type="external">passed in the House</a> with 269 votes in favor — 174 from Republicans and 95 from Democrats. And the bill <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&amp;session=1&amp;vote=00123" type="external">cleared the Senate</a> with 74 “yea” votes, of which 28 were cast by Republicans. In fact, one of those <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&amp;session=1&amp;vote=00123" type="external">voting in favor</a>, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said on <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50838698/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/#.USOgk2eH_To" type="external">NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Feb. 17</a> that “Republicans deserve blame; I’ll take some blame for it.”</p>
<p>And Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican from Michigan who voted against the bill, has said that “it’s totally disingenuous” for Republicans who voted in favor of the bill to now blame the president for it. Amash <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccaberg/republican-congressman-ridicules-his-party-for-lame-hashtag" type="external">told Buzzfeed</a>: “The debt ceiling deal in 2011 was agreed to by Republicans and Democrats, and regardless of who came up with the sequester, they all voted for it. So, you can’t vote for something and, with a straight face, go blame the other guy for its existence in law.”</p>
<p>— D’Angelo Gore</p>
<p>Below is a list of some Republicans who have faulted the president for the sequester:</p>
<p>Rep. Martha Roby, Feb. 16: My district is home to Fort Rucker, the primary flight training base for Army Aviation. If the president’s sequester takes effect, Fort Rucker would lose 500 students training to be combat aviators and roughly 37,000 hours of aviation training. (Source: <a href="http://roby.house.gov/press-release/video-roby-gives-weekly-republican-address-discusses-sequester" type="external">Weekly Republican Address</a>)</p>
<p>Sen. Mitch McConnell, Feb. 13: Take the Obama sequester as just one example. The President had a chance last night to offer a thoughtful alternative to his sequester, one that could reduce spending in a smarter way. That is what Republicans have been calling for all along, and it is the kind of thing the House has already voted to do not once but twice. We want to work with him to actually make that happen. )Source: <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2013-02-13/pdf/CREC-2013-02-13-pt1-PgS664-2.pdf#page=1" type="external">Congressional Record</a>)</p>
<p>Rep. John Boehner, Feb. 12: We are only weeks away from the devastating consequences of the president’s sequester, and he failed to offer the cuts needed to replace it. (Source: <a href="http://boehner.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=319797" type="external">Press release</a>)</p>
<p>Rep. Jeff Miller, Feb. 10: The Administration’s sequestration threatens to reduce our military’s readiness and throw our nation into another recession. (Source: <a href="http://jeffmiller.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=YTACSJODB7RI6N5BHMXUNYWSQI" type="external">Newsletter)</a></p>
<p>Rep. Howard McKeon, Feb. 8: Today the White House finally broke their silence on the consequences President Obama’s sequester would have on domestic spending. (Source: <a href="http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=ae3c444f-8d13-4ea5-8400-727e8656ab98&amp;ContentType_id=e0c7b822-826f-493d-8cef-1e21aa53e12a&amp;Group_id=12580721-af41-4987-849c-c25b730d096d&amp;MonthDisplay=1&amp;YearDisplay=2012" type="external">Press release</a>)</p>
<p>Rep. Peter Roskam, Feb. 5: The sequester is the president’s sequester. (Source: <a href="http://roskam.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=6501:icymi-roskam-talks-sequester-cuts-on-cnbcs-the-kudlow-report-&amp;catid=96&amp;Itemid=100052" type="external">CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report</a>“)</p> | The ‘Obamaquester’ | false | https://factcheck.org/2013/02/the-obamaquester/ | 2013-02-19 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The White House late Tuesday scrapped plans for Trump to sign a revised travel ban Wednesday afternoon, a person familiar with the matter said, marking the third time the administration has put off the matter since the president said that dangerous people might enter the country without a prohibition in place.</p>
<p>But when it is signed, people familiar with the matter said, the order is still expected to include a host of significant changes. The order will exempt current visa holders and legal permanent residents, and it will not impose a blanket ban on those from Iraq, where U.S. forces are working with the Iraqis to battle the Islamic State. It will not include an exception for religious minorities, which critics had pointed to as evidence it was meant to discriminate against Muslims. And it will not go into effect immediately when it is signed, people familiar with the matter said.</p>
<p>The people said the situation remains fluid and changes remain possible. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, said he, too, had heard Iraq would not be included in the revised order, though he also had heard the opposite. Asked if he had concerns about Iraq’s possible inclusion in the new executive order, he praised the country as “our partner and ally.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“They are protecting us here, and we’re fighting this enemy that threatens all of our countries together,” Townsend said. Earlier, he had said the Iraqis’ reaction to the first ban was “pretty level-headed and sophisticated,” and that the security forces with whom he dealt – while “relieved when the executive order was suspended” – remained focused on their mission.</p>
<p>“Now they’re waiting to see how that may play out here in the future,” Townsend said of the new executive order.</p>
<p>The decision to delay signing the order came as people on Twitter and elsewhere heaped praise on Trump for his speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. A CNN-ORC poll, for example, showed that 7 in 10 people who watched said the address made them feel more optimistic about the direction of the country, and about two-thirds said the president has the right priorities for the nation. The pool of those who watched the speech was about eight points more Republican than the total population.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear why the White House canceled plans to ink the new executive order, although CNN reported that a White House official did not deny that optics were part of the calculus. “We want the [executive order] to have its own ‘moment,’ ” an official told the network. A White House spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking comment for this article.</p>
<p>Trump’s original executive order, now frozen by the courts, had temporarily barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen – and all refugees from entering the United States. When it was implemented, the State Department provisionally revoked tens of thousands of visas, and some people who were in transit when it took effect were detained or deported once they reached U.S. airports.</p>
<p>Although courts have disagreed, the president has insisted that the ban is necessary for national security reasons. He wrote on Twitter that, because a federal judge in Washington state had ordered it frozen, “many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country.” He also suggested that if something were to happen, the court system would be to blame.</p>
<p>Since then, the Justice Department has asked courts to delay litigation while a new order is drafted, and the White House has repeatedly put off doing that. The president said on Feb. 10, a Friday, that he was considering writing a new order and that he probably would take some action the following Monday or Tuesday. He did not write a new order by then, and on Feb. 16, a Thursday, he said he would do so the following week.</p>
<p>Again, he did not, and a senior administration official said on Feb. 22 that the order would be delayed another week, as officials worked to make sure it would be implemented smoothly. The president was slated to sign the order Wednesday, but now, it seems, it will have to wait again. How long is unclear.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The delays and the removal of Iraq from the list of blocked countries could undermine the administration’s argument about the necessity of the ban. In arguing that the ban should not be frozen, the Justice Department had asserted that the seven countries, including Iraq, covered by the order were identified by Congress and the previous administration as having problems with terror.</p>
<p>Judges and others had already been skeptical of the argument that the administration needed to impose a ban for national security reasons. U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said at a court hearing there was “startling evidence” from national security professionals that the order “may be counterproductive to its stated goal” of keeping the nation safe. A recent Department of Homeland Security report concluded citizenship is an “unreliable” threat indicator and that people from the seven countries affected by the ban have rarely been implicated in U.S.-based terrorism.</p>
<p>Of 82 people “who died in the pursuit of or were convicted of any terrorism-related federal offense” since March 2011, that report said, more than half were U.S.-born citizens. and just two were from Iraq. The president said Tuesday night that the “vast majority” of people convicted for terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside the United States.</p>
<p>The Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday that it had won convictions “against over 500 defendants for terrorism or terrorism-related charges in federal courts,” and a “review of that information revealed that a substantial majority of those convicted were born in foreign countries.” A department spokeswoman declined to provide the raw data.</p>
<p>The administration already has faced criticism for pointing to terror attacks that the ban could not have prevented as evidence of its necessity, and critics noted it omitted Saudi Arabia, which is where most of the Sept. 11 hijackers came from. Now Justice Department lawyers might be pressed to justify why people from Iraq can enter the United States, when those from other countries with the same designation cannot.</p>
<p>Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.</p> | Revised Trump immigration order, delayed after speech, will not ban citizens from Iraq | false | https://abqjournal.com/959975/revised-trump-immigration-order-delayed-after-speech-will-not-ban-citizens-from-iraq.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>It’s not the Toyota Camry or some other midsize car. It’s the Honda CR-V, a compact SUV that for the past three months has been the top-selling vehicle in America excluding pickup trucks.</p>
<p>The new Honda, unveiled Thursday, is scheduled to hit showrooms this winter. The timing is perfect, as consumers in the U.S. and worldwide show a preference for smaller SUVs that are almost as fuel-efficient as cars yet have more room to haul cargo and people. The compact SUV passed the midsize car last year to become the top-selling segment of the U.S. market, and it’s showing no sign of turning back.</p>
<p>The new CR-V, based on the underpinnings of Honda’s popular Civic small car, gets a wider-looking exterior with a rounded body. The interior gets a soft dashboard and restyled, stitched seats. It comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. By customer demand, Honda has gone back to having a real volume control knob for the entertainment system.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The SUV is bigger from wheel to wheel, providing two more inches of legroom in the rear seat. Cargo space with the seats folded down is almost 10 inches longer than the old model, the company said.</p>
<p>The new CR-V comes with a 2.4-liter, 184-horsepower four-cylinder engine from the previous model. On upper trim levels, there’s a 190-horsepower, 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from the new Civic. Both have a continuously variable automatic transmission.</p>
<p>Gas mileage hasn’t been determined but Honda says the turbo will be better than the current model and best in the market segment. The current two-wheel-drive model gets an estimated 32 mpg on the highway. The price wasn’t announced.</p>
<p>The CR-V has defied the auto industry axiom that old products don’t sell as well as new ones. The SUV was last revamped in 2012, yet it has remained the top seller in its segment. Since July, the only vehicles in the U.S. to outsell the CR-V have been full-size pickup trucks offered by the Detroit Three. The CR-V has outsold the perennial top-selling car in the U.S., the midsize Camry, all summer.</p>
<p>Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for Autotrader, says it won’t be long until a compact SUV permanently unseats the Camry as the top-selling car-based vehicle. The winner, though, may end up being the Toyota RAV4 small SUV, because Toyota is more willing than Honda to offer discounts and sell to rental car companies to boost sales, Krebs said.</p>
<p>So far this year, Toyota has sold 297,453 Camrys in the U.S., and Honda has sold 263,493 CR-Vs. The RAV4 is close behind with sales just over 260,380.</p>
<p>Compact SUVs accounted for only 7.2 percent of the U.S. market just a decade ago, but that has more than doubled to 16.5 percent so far this year, Edmunds.com says. Compact SUV sales are up 4 percent through September, while overall U.S. auto sales are up only 0.5 percent.</p>
<p>Krebs sees the compact SUV segment becoming increasingly competitive when the new CR-V arrives. General Motors is rolling out a new Chevrolet Equinox early next year, and both will go up against relatively new versions of the RAV4 and the Nissan Rogue. Other automakers will freshen their entries. It’s all good for consumers.</p>
<p>“We think there will be more aggressive marketing, maybe more incentives in that segment,” she said.</p> | The new family car: Honda revamps small SUV | false | https://abqjournal.com/866309/the-new-family-car-honda-revamps-small-suv.html | 2016-10-13 | 2 |
<p>Today is the 2nd Anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Our first post was a couple of weeks later, <a href="" type="internal">Declaration of the Occupation of Perpetual Grievance</a>.</p>
<p>Remember, the next, ahem, <a href="" type="internal">leading Democratic contender</a> for President of the United States was the <a href="http://elizabethwarrenwiki.org/intellectual-foundation-of-occupy-wall-street-movement/" type="external">intellectual founder</a> of Occupy Wall Street.</p>
<p>Our <a href="" type="internal">Occupy Wall Street tag</a> now has over 100 posts.&#160; Go ahead and take a stroll down memory lane.</p>
<p>It’s really hard to find a single favorite post.&#160; Here are the Awards for Best Occupy Wall Street Moments (plus a Special Award at the end):</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>“The change is possible. So, what do we consider today possible? Just follow the media. On the one hand in technology and sexuality everything seems to be possible. You can travel to the moon. You can become immortal by biogenetics. You can have sex with animals or whatever. But look at the fields of society and economy. There almost everything is considered impossible.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p> | Legal Insurrection Awards for Best #OccupyWallStreet Moments (plus Special Google Search Award) | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/09/legal-insurrection-awards-for-best-occupywallstreet-moments-plus-special-google-search-award/ | 2013-09-17 | 0 |
<p>This fast-food burger joint is facing some serious criticism–and it has nothing to do with their patties or fries.</p>
<p>Instead, the critique and protests of the astroturf have moved to the deep fryers and greasy counters of Whataburger.</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p>That’s right. The spirit of Colin Kaepernick has manifested in high-calorie value meals, 96 oz. sodas, and paper hats.</p>
<p>But this cashier didn’t take a knee.</p>
<p>Breaking news updates and daily headlines from a news source you can trust.</p>
<p>She refused to take an order.</p>
<p>One worker at the Texas chain restaurant was fired for refusing to serve police officers.</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Whatawoman.</p>
<p>Whataliberal.</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p>Whataburger.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/14/whataburger-worker-fired-for-refusing-to-serve-police-officers.html" type="external">Fox News</a>:</p>
<p>A worker at a Texas fast-food restaurant was fired after she refused to serve two police officers, the company said Saturday.</p>
<p>In a lengthy post on the Denison Police Department’s Facebook page, Chief Jay Burch alleged the officers were cursed at by the employee and that the restaurant manager’s only response was “I don’t get into politics.”</p>
<p>“If a business does not want police officers as customers, just let us know,” Burch wrote. “There’s no need to curse us and make a scene, just let us know you don’t want us there and we’ll go somewhere else.”</p>
<p>He added, “Now going somewhere else in Denison in the middle of the night is not easy because our officers don’t have many options. What really gets my goat with such an incident is that while most of us are sleeping – sleeping!, the officers are out there working hard to keep us safe and when trying to take a break to eat – they face this type of reception from an employee of a local business and management calls it ‘politics’?”</p>
<p>Burch never named the restaurant, but local media outlets identified the restaurant as Whataburger, a popular Texas-based chain.</p>
<p>In a statement, a Whataburger spokesperson said “an individual employee acted out of line with Whataburger’s values to treat all customers with respect. We took swift action and this person is no longer employed by us.”</p>
<p>Denison Sgt. Holly Jenkins said on Facebook that the employee was unapologetic, expressed her hatred toward police and said she would continue to refuse service to police officers.</p>
<p>Jenkins said the two officers were served by another employee.</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p>Sadly, this isn’t the first time individuals have refused to serve cops.</p>
<p>Just a few months ago, an employee at Dunkin Donuts refused to serve police officers in New York City:</p>
<p>An employee at a Dunkin’ Donuts in New York City is accused of denying service to two NYPD officers, saying “I don’t serve cops,” according to the New York Post.</p>
<p>Detectives’ Endowment Association President Michael Palladino is calling the discrimination “disgraceful,” saying Thursday that it should not go unattended, the Post reports.</p>
<p>In reaction to the incident, Palladino is calling for a boycott of the chain.</p>
<p>“I assume it is an isolated incident. Nevertheless, Dunkin’ Donuts corporate should issue an apology to the NYPD and until that happens, I have asked detectives and their families to refrain from patronizing the stores,” he said.</p>
<p>He also believes the city’s political leaders are partly to blame for the incident, saying that they have “encouraged this type of behavior by constantly demonizing cops and pushing their decriminalization agenda. It’s time for the same politicians to step up, take some responsibility and condemn what occurred.”</p>
<p>Shortly after noon on Sunday, the two cops — plainclothes patrol officers assigned to the 73rd Precinct’s detective squad — entered Dunkin’ Donuts at 1993 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn to get Baskin-Robbins.</p>
<p>The officers, dressed in suit pants, shirts and ties, with badges and pistols on their belts, waited in line to order. When they got to the counter, the store clerk ignored them and asked the customer behind them what he wanted. When the customer said the cops were there before him, the clerk replied, “Yeah, I know, but I don’t serve cops,” according to the Post.</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p>I’d love to see one of these stores get held up by robbers and the cops refuse to protect these individuals because…well, they refuse to protect fast-food workers.</p>
<p>Liberals would be all over that.</p>
<p>That is crazy!</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p>Not helping someone, serving someone just because of their profession!</p>
<p>I know, right?</p>
<p>You turn these tables around and cities would be lit on fire.</p>
<p>Advertisement - story continues below</p>
<p>But, since this action is directed towards cops just trying to do their job it is considered legitimate protest.</p>
<p>Absolutely ridiculous. Don’t you think?</p>
<p>What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</p> | Whataburger Worker Fired For Refusing To Serve Police Officers | true | http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/whataburger-worker-fired-for-refusing-to-serve-police-officers | 0 |
|
<p />
<p>In a story Dec. 8, 2016 about the state of Washington filing a lawsuit against Monsanto, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Monsanto stopped producing PCBs in 1979 when Congress banned the compounds. The company voluntarily stopped producing them in 1977.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A corrected version of the story is below:</p>
<p>Washington state suing agrochemical giant over PCB pollution</p>
<p>Washington says it's the first U.S. state to sue the agrochemical giant Monsanto over pollution from PCBs</p>
<p>By GENE JOHNSON</p>
<p>Associated Press</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>SEATTLE (AP) — Washington has become the first U.S. state to sue the agrochemical giant Monsanto over pervasive pollution from PCBs, the toxic industrial chemicals that have accumulated in plants, fish and people around the globe for decades. The company said the case "lacks merit."</p>
<p>Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit at a news conference in downtown Seattle Thursday, saying they expect to win hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from the company.</p>
<p>"It is time to hold the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs accountable for the significant harm they have caused to our state," Ferguson said, noting that the chemicals continue to imperil the health of protected salmon and orcas despite the tens of millions of dollars Washington has spent to clean up the pollution. "Monsanto produced PCBs for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals' harm to human health and the environment."</p>
<p>The suit arrives just days before Monsanto shareholders vote whether to accept a $57 billion buyout offer from Germany's Bayer. The extraordinary meeting of shareholders takes place just outside of St. Louis on Tuesday.</p>
<p>PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in many industrial and commercial applications, including in paint, coolants, sealants and hydraulic fluids. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, produced them from 1935 until 1977, two years before they were banned by Congress.</p>
<p>According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of health problems, including cancer in animals as well as effects on the immune, nervous and reproductive systems.</p>
<p>In a company release, Monsanto spokesman Scott S. Partridge said that the "case is experimental because it seeks to target a product manufacturer for selling a lawful and useful chemical four to eight decades ago that was applied by the U.S. government, Washington State, local cities, and industries into many products to make them safer. PCBs have not been produced in the U.S. for four decades, and Washington is now pursuing a case on a contingency fee basis that departs from settled law both in Washington and across the country. Most of the prior cases filed by the same contingency fee lawyers have been dismissed, and Monsanto believes this case similarly lacks merit."</p>
<p>In response to a similar lawsuit filed last year by the city of Spokane, Washington, Monsanto said a previous incarnation of the company produced the PCBs, which it said "served an important fire protection and safety purpose."</p>
<p>"PCBs sold at the time were a lawful and useful product that was then incorporated by third parties into other useful products," Charla Lord, a company spokeswoman, wrote. "If improper disposal or other improper uses created the necessity for clean-up costs, then these other third parties would bear responsibility for these costs."</p>
<p>Several other cities — including Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Long Beach and San Diego, California — have also sued Monsanto over PCB pollution, the Attorney General's Office said. Those cases are ongoing.</p>
<p>Ferguson, a Democrat, pointed to internal Monsanto documents that show the company long knew about the danger the chemicals posed. In 1937, an internal memo said testing on animals showed "systemic toxic effects" from prolonged exposure by inhaling PCB fumes or ingestion. In 1969, a company committee on PCBs noted, "There is too much customer/market need and selfishly too much Monsanto profit to go out."</p>
<p>"There is little probability that any action that can be taken will prevent the growing incrimination of specific polychlorinated biphenyls ... as nearly global environmental contaminants leading to contamination of human food (particularly fish), the killing of some marine species (shrimp), and the possible extinction of several species of fish eating birds," a committee memo said.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Monsanto told officials around the country the contrary. In a letter to New Jersey's Department of Conservation that year, Monsanto wrote, "Based on available data, manufacturing and use experience, we do not believe PCBs to be seriously toxic."</p>
<p>Ferguson said that infuriated him. He noted that his great-grandparents settled along Washington's Skagit River in the late 19th century. The Skagit was one of more than 100 water bodies in the state listed in the lawsuit as being polluted with PCBs.</p>
<p>"That river, the Skagit River, which my family depended on to a great degree in the 19th century as they homesteaded here, is now contaminated by PCBs, as are the fish," he said. "That makes me mad."</p>
<p>Ferguson said his office had been in touch with counterparts in other states, but it remained unclear if other states would follow Washington's lead in suing the company.</p>
<p>Washington's lawsuit seeks damages on several grounds, including product liability for what it described as Monsanto's failure to warn about the danger of PCBs; negligence; and even trespass, for injuring the state's natural resources.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Gene Johnson at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle</p> | Correction: Washington-Monsanto Lawsuit story | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/09/washington-state-suing-agrochemical-giant-over-pcb-pollution.html | 2018-01-05 | 0 |
<p>Jack Abramoff was given four years in prison by a federal judge Thursday - a sentence whittled down from a possible 11 years because he cooperated with investigators - for his part in the fraud and corruption scandal that jolted Washington and landed several other lobbyists and Capitol Hill players in trouble as well.</p>
<p>AP via Google News:</p>
<p>With Abramoff's help, the Justice Department has won corruption convictions against a parade of lawmakers, Bush administration figures and Capitol Hill aides.</p>
<p>Abramoff admitted trading luxury golf junkets, expensive meals, skybox tickets and other gifts for political favors. The scandal shook Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Capitol Hill and contributed to the Republicans' loss of Congress in 2006.</p>
<p />
<p>Abramoff apologized to the court and said he was a changed man.</p>
<p><a href="http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gMZw4dYnLxr5AKkDn0bKGqH0epYAD93042K80" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Abramoff Gets Four Years | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/abramoff-gets-four-years/ | 2008-09-05 | 4 |
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ These Indiana lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Cash 5</p>
<p>04-07-09-21-25</p>
<p>(four, seven, nine, twenty-one, twenty-five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $135,000</p>
<p>Lotto Plus</p>
<p>07-11-17-34-35-37</p>
<p>(seven, eleven, seventeen, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-seven)</p>
<p>Quick Draw Midday</p>
<p>02-06-07-08-09-13-17-19-20-22-27-33-36-42-45-48-51-52-54-67, BE: 20</p>
<p>(two, six, seven, eight, nine, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-seven, thirty-three, thirty-six, forty-two, forty-five, forty-eight, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-four, sixty-seven; BE: twenty)</p>
<p>Daily Three-Midday</p>
<p>9-3-7, SB: 2</p>
<p>(nine, three, seven; SB: two)</p>
<p>Daily Three-Evening</p>
<p>4-1-0, SB: 8</p>
<p>(four, one, zero; SB: eight)</p>
<p>Daily Four-Midday</p>
<p>2-7-9-8, SB: 2</p>
<p>(two, seven, nine, eight; SB: two)</p>
<p>Daily Four-Evening</p>
<p>9-5-1-2, SB: 8</p>
<p>(nine, five, one, two; SB: eight)</p>
<p>Quick Draw Evening</p>
<p>04-11-26-33-35-36-46-47-48-51-53-54-55-62-65-66-70-71-78-80, BE: 65</p>
<p>(four, eleven, twenty-six, thirty-three, thirty-five, thirty-six, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, fifty-one, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, sixty-two, sixty-five, sixty-six, seventy, seventy-one, seventy-eight, eighty; BE: sixty-five)</p>
<p>Hoosier Lotto</p>
<p>01-05-07-16-40-43</p>
<p>(one, five, seven, sixteen, forty, forty-three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $5.5 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p>
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ These Indiana lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Cash 5</p>
<p>04-07-09-21-25</p>
<p>(four, seven, nine, twenty-one, twenty-five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $135,000</p>
<p>Lotto Plus</p>
<p>07-11-17-34-35-37</p>
<p>(seven, eleven, seventeen, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-seven)</p>
<p>Quick Draw Midday</p>
<p>02-06-07-08-09-13-17-19-20-22-27-33-36-42-45-48-51-52-54-67, BE: 20</p>
<p>(two, six, seven, eight, nine, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-seven, thirty-three, thirty-six, forty-two, forty-five, forty-eight, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-four, sixty-seven; BE: twenty)</p>
<p>Daily Three-Midday</p>
<p>9-3-7, SB: 2</p>
<p>(nine, three, seven; SB: two)</p>
<p>Daily Three-Evening</p>
<p>4-1-0, SB: 8</p>
<p>(four, one, zero; SB: eight)</p>
<p>Daily Four-Midday</p>
<p>2-7-9-8, SB: 2</p>
<p>(two, seven, nine, eight; SB: two)</p>
<p>Daily Four-Evening</p>
<p>9-5-1-2, SB: 8</p>
<p>(nine, five, one, two; SB: eight)</p>
<p>Quick Draw Evening</p>
<p>04-11-26-33-35-36-46-47-48-51-53-54-55-62-65-66-70-71-78-80, BE: 65</p>
<p>(four, eleven, twenty-six, thirty-three, thirty-five, thirty-six, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, fifty-one, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, sixty-two, sixty-five, sixty-six, seventy, seventy-one, seventy-eight, eighty; BE: sixty-five)</p>
<p>Hoosier Lotto</p>
<p>01-05-07-16-40-43</p>
<p>(one, five, seven, sixteen, forty, forty-three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $5.5 million</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p> | IN Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/amp/07c60a6c77d8473e8d0b1f5a0b3fa822 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>The suburban Pittsburgh high school where a student is accused of going on a bloody knifing spree will remain closed Monday, but is expected to reopen sometime next week.</p>
<p>Officials at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., haven’t given an exact date for when they would allow the children back into the school, where a 16-year-old suspect allegedly stabbed or slashed 20 students and a security guard Wednesday.</p>
<p>But the high school is expected to reopen for the "systematic return of students" at some point next week, said Westmoreland County public safety spokesman Dan Stevens.</p>
<p>The school has been waiting for special ceiling tiles to be brought in so that it will look the way it did before the violent attack.</p>
<p>Suspect Alex Hribal was arrested and remains in detention. The criminal charges against him include attempted homicide, aggravated assault and carrying a prohibited weapon. Prosecutors have charged him as an adult.</p>
<p /> | School in Pennsylvania Stabbing Spree to Reopen Next Week | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/school-stabbing-spree/school-pennsylvania-stabbing-spree-reopen-next-week-n78741 | 2014-04-12 | 3 |
<p>On August 27th, the Brazilian Supreme Court will decide a case that could have far reaching effects on the Amazon and the thousands of indigenous people who live there. The case questions the legality of a process that created an Indigenous Territory in northern Brazil, and threatens to reverse decades of progress on indigenous and social rights throughout the country.</p>
<p>In 2005, after more than two decades of struggle for recognition, five indigenous groups in Brazil’s northern Roraima state won the rights to their ancestral lands. Their efforts culminated in the creation of a new Indigenous Territory, Raposa Serra do Sol, covering a large swath of the Amazon Rainforest on the border with Guyana.</p>
<p>In a decree signed by Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, over 18 thousand indigenous Makuxi, Wapixana, Ingariko, Taukepang, and Patamona peoples were given 1.7 million hectares and non-indigenous peoples were compensated and forced to leave the area. Although this may have brought to end the long struggle to have their territorial rights recognized, the indigenous peoples of Raposa have faced fierce opposition from entrenched economic interests in Roraima.</p>
<p>In particular, group of seven wealthy rice farmers has refused to leave the region, throwing the reserve into chaos. These large-scale farmers–known as fazendeiros in Portuguese–have rejected compensation and relocation, despite having arrived in the area less than 15 years ago.</p>
<p>A recent spate of violence against the indigenous peoples in the Raposa Territory has further increased tensions. In April, an indigenous leader was attacked when a bomb was thrown at his house. In May, ten Macuxi–including six children–were attacked and shot by armed men working for rice farmer and local mayor Paulo Cesar Quartiero. Quartiero was detained by police and later released, despite the discovery of a large weapons cache on his property.</p>
<p>Earlier, in April, the Supreme Court had suspended an operation by the federal police to remove the remaining seven illegal occupants of the reserve, because the farmers set up blockades and destroyed bridges in order to fight their eviction.</p>
<p>“Even with all the destruction carried out by the rice growers, the Supreme Court decided in their favor,” Macuxi chief Dionito Jose de Sousa told the AP in April. According to Catarina Vianna, a member of Makunaima Grita–a Brazilian group dedicated to helping the indigenous people at Raposo Serra do Sol, the current struggle is a basic one for the peoples of Raposa.</p>
<p>“This is really a local conflict. It’s about use of water, about the farms getting bigger and bigger. Now the indigenous people are saying “enough, this has been recognized as our land,” she said by phone from London.</p>
<p>With the support of the Roraima state government, the farmers and state Governor José de Anchieta have appealed to Brazil’s Supreme Court to break up the Raposa Territory and free up large amount of the land.</p>
<p>“The farmers want the indigenous land to be divided into islands. They don’t want the indigenous land to be a continuous tract of land. But legal experts in Brazil maintain that there is no legal basis to annul the 2005 demarcation,” said Vianna.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>All of this comes at a time when President Silva has signed a decree to station troops permanently on all Indigenous Territories on the border. Top officials in the Brazilian Armed Forces have been talking about foreign meddling in the largely-indigenous border region. It appears the military brass feels threatened by the formation of Indigenous Territories, speaking constantly of risks to national sovereignty.</p>
<p>“The military has an agenda,” said Vianna, “to protect Brazilian sovereignty. It’s been their main discourse since the dictatorship in the 60’s and 70’s. They are against the demarcation of continuous indigenous lands near the border because they want to control what happens, and they’re afraid that what they call “foreign interests” will use the Indians to then exploit the Amazon.”</p>
<p>The military is using the conflict in Roraima to support these goals–suggesting the presence of drug traffickers and guerrilla groups in indigenous lands–and has called for the Supreme Court to annul Raposa Serra do Sol’s boundries.</p>
<p>According to Tim Cahill, a researcher on Brazil with Amnesty International, the military has long tried to taint social movements in Brazil by claiming connections to foreign revolutionary groups.</p>
<p>“In relation to the accusations of money coming in from Venezuela and FARC rebels–I have no evidence for or against it,” he said. “But it’s fair to say that whenever there’s some criticism or attack to be made against social movements in Brazil… the FARC are always dragged out, although very little evidence is ever provided to prove these allegations. So it seems once again that it’s an attempt to criminalize social movements in Brazil and discredit their work in favor of the poor and the marginalized.”</p>
<p>Cahill says that the military–which has total access and freedom of movement in Indigenous Territories–does not have a good reputation among indigenous peoples.</p>
<p>“Indigenous people across the Amazon have persistently complained to Amnesty and denounced violations committed by soldiers who work indigenous areas–sexual abuse, physical abuse, and intimidation,” he said. “There seems to be a clear contradiction in the sense that indigenous areas are meant to limit the access into those areas to guarantee their safety and protection. Yet when the Army goes in there, time and time again we see that their rights are violated.”</p>
<p>However, the military is unrepentant and has been very clear that nobody’s rights supercede those of the Brazilian Armed Forces.</p>
<p>“We want to be clear on something fundamental — Indian lands are Brazilian lands,” said Defense Minister Nelson Jobim according to a May Reuters article. “There are no nations or Indian peoples, there are Brazilians who are Indians”. The Brazilian Ministry of Defense was contacted for this piece, but declined to comment.</p>
<p>But Cahill believes that the real causes for the current conflict over Raposa go deeper than the military’s security concerns. He says that this case represents a key moment in the face-off between indigenous rights and the interests of big business in Brazil, and big agrobusiness in particular.</p>
<p>“This is something we see not only in the Amazon, but across Brazil”, he said. “The cultural, social and economic rights of indigneous peoples tend to come into conflict with the economic interests of big agro-industry. And big agro-industry has been the driving force of the recent economic boom that’s occuring in Brazil, and we’ve seen that there’s a lot of political and judicial support for their interests.”</p>
<p>“When the federal authorities comply with their obligations under the Constitution–and under international legislation–to identify and guarantee indigenous access to their ancestral lands,” he added, “The challenges which come up tend to be around the economic interests of big agro-industry–in this case, the rice farmers. And time and again, the indigenous peoples are losing out because vested interests tend to side with those with economic power.”</p>
<p>“In this case, it’s not that the military has allied itself with the farmers,” said Vianna. “Rather, two separate interests have come together. This handful of farmers, they’re extremely wealthy. It’s not about them. It’s about how Brazil will use the Amazon. Are they going to just leave it to the Indians, who won’t develop it? Or does Brazil have a plan for developing the Amazon? This is a discourse of economic development.”</p>
<p>“That’s why the farmers are using economic arguments,” Vianna added. “They are saying ‘what we do is good for the state and national economy’. They call themselves the ‘Nationalist Resistance’. They consider themselves those who represent the nation, against the Indians who are supported by ‘foreign interests’. They never say who these ‘interests’ are. But by conflating the local conflict into this language of nationalism and development–of developing the nation–they were able to get closer to the military’s cause.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Rogerio Duarte do Pateo–a Sao Paulo based member of Makunaima Grita–signaled that the consequences of the court’s ruling could extend far beyond Raposa’s borders.</p>
<p>“A decision against Raposa would create the legal precedents to revoke all indigenous titles to land in Brazil,” he said. “Any other territory could be contested, like the Yanomami, Kayapó, etcetera.”</p>
<p>Both Pateo and Cahill believe that a decision against Raposa would not only go against the Brazilian Constitution, but it could put at risk the gains made over the last 30 years in terms of indigenous rights, throughout Brazil.</p>
<p>“What is on the line here is Article 231 of the Brazilian Constitution and the indigenous rights that are layed out in that article,” Pateo said. “It’s not that the court decision will directly affect the Constitution, but the arguments that are being used go against Article 231–it seems that the justice system is going to favor the big landowners–and this will open up the way to revise Article 231.”</p>
<p>“The 1988 Constitution allows indigenous people the process to set out and identify their ancestral lands,” said Cahill. “There’s a real fear that this will set back cases across the country of indigenous peoples who continue to fight for the rights to their land. And who, through this process, continue to seek the provision of their basic human rights and cultural rights.”</p>
<p>According to a statement signed by 85 Brazilian NGO’s in support of Raposa Serra do Sol, the Constitution “defined the rights of indigenous peoples over their lands and established that these rights enjoy over-riding precedence over any subsequent rights granted to non-indigenous holders”.</p>
<p>However, Brazil’s indigenous peoples are still fighting for these rights–and those outlined in the recently-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples–to be upheld and put into practice.</p>
<p>“The demarcation process doesn’t give indigenous people the full rights to their land, but allows the land to be held by the Federal government in custody for them,” Cahill said.</p>
<p>“Indigenous peoples are considered minors under Brazilian law and thus do not have the right to hold the land for themselves and decide on the land for themselves,” he said. “[It is] an issue which has been hotly contested and which many believe limit the rights of indigenous peoples to their full citizenship and full rights under international law.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Whatever the Supreme Court decides on August 27th, the case represents a key moment in the decades long struggle for indigenous rights in Brazil.</p>
<p>“It would seriously undermine the whole system of Indian reserves in Brazil if the courts were to bow to pressure from influential landowners and politicians, particularly given the violence the Indians have been subjected to,” said Miriam Ross, from Survival International.</p>
<p>According to Pateo, a ruling against the Raposa territory would not only undermine the recent successes in relation to indigenous rights, but would “mark the future of development in Brazil in relation to the Amazon”, giving a clear signal to logging, hydroelectric, and agricultural companies that the Amazon is fair game.</p>
<p>“Will we continue a predatory model of exploitation that doesn’t respect the law?,” he asked. “Or will Brazil be transformed–definitively–into a country that develops itself sustainably, and respects human rights?”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>To help the peoples of Raposa Serra do Sol maintain their current territory, please sign this petition, which will be sent to the Supreme Court Justices a week before the ruling is expected.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.petitiononline.com/rss408/petition.html</a></p>
<p>Watch video of the May attack on Macuxi Indians in Raposa Serra do Sol <a href="http://www.survival-international.org/news/3389" type="external">http://www.survival-international.org/news/3389</a></p>
<p>CHARLES MOSTOLLER can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Your Ad Here</a> &#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Battle for the Amazon | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/08/22/the-battle-for-the-amazon/ | 2008-08-22 | 4 |
<p>Jan 18 (Reuters) - Lerado Financial Group Co Ltd:</p>
<p>* ‍EXPECTED TO RECORD A FAIR VALUE LOSS ON EQUITY INVESTMENTS OF ABOUT HK$590 MILLION FOR YEAR ENDED 31 DEC 2017​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S., British and French forces struck Syria with more than 100 missiles on Saturday in the first coordinated Western strikes against the Damascus government, targeting what they called chemical weapons sites in retaliation for a poison gas attack.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump announced the military action from the White House, saying the three allies had “marshaled their righteous power against barbarism and brutality”.</p>
<p>As he spoke, explosions rocked Damascus.</p>
<p>The bombing represents a major escalation putting the West in direct confrontation with Assad’s superpower ally Russia, but is unlikely to alter the course of a multi-sided war which has killed at least half a million people in the past seven years.</p>
<p>That in turn raises the question of where Western countries go from here, after a volley of strikes denounced by Damascus and Moscow as both reckless and pointless.</p>
<p>By morning, the Western countries said their bombing was over for now. Syria released video of President Bashar al-Assad, whose Russian- and Iranian-backed forces have already driven his enemies from Syria’s major towns and cities, arriving at work as usual, with the caption “morning of resilience”.</p>
<p>British Prime Minister Theresa May described the strike as “limited and targeted”. She said she had authorized the British action after intelligence indicated Assad’s government was responsible for the attack using chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of Douma a week ago.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia/russia-likely-to-call-u-n-meeting-over-syria-attack-russian-lawmaker-idUSKBN1HL075" type="external">Russia likely to call U.N. meeting over Syria attack: Russian lawmaker</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-israel/syria-strikes-an-important-signal-to-iran-and-hezbollah-israeli-minister-idUSKBN1HL0A4" type="external">Syria strikes an 'important signal' to Iran and Hezbollah: Israeli minister</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-nato/u-s-france-britain-to-brief-nato-allies-on-syria-on-saturday-idUSKBN1HL0MA" type="external">U.S., France, Britain to brief NATO allies on Syria on Saturday</a>
<p>French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes had been limited so far to Syria’s chemical weapons facilities.</p>
<p>With more than 100 missiles fired from ships and manned aircraft, the allies struck three of Syria’s main chemical weapons facilities, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford said.</p>
<p>The targets included a Syrian center in the greater Damascus area for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weaponry as well as a chemical weapons storage facility near the city of Homs. A third target, also near Homs, contained both a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and a command post.</p>
<p>Mattis called the strikes a “one time shot”, although Trump raised the prospect of further strikes if Assad’s government again used chemical weapons.</p>
<p>“We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents,” the U.S. president said in a televised address.</p>
<p>The Syrian conflict pits a complex myriad of parties against each other, with Russia and Iran giving Assad military and political help that has largely proven decisive over the past three years in crushing any rebel threat to topple him. Fractured opposition forces have had varying levels of support from the West, Arab states and Turkey.</p>
<p>The United States, Britain and France have all bombed the Islamic State group in Syria for years and had troops on the ground to fight them, but refrained from targeting Assad’s government apart from a volley of U.S. missiles last year.</p>
<p>Although the Western countries have all said for seven years that Assad must leave power, they held back in the past from striking his government with no wider strategy to defeat him.</p>
<p>Assad’s government and allies responded outwardly with fury, although there were also clear suggestions that they considered the attack a one-off, unlikely to harm Assad.</p>
<p>A senior official in a regional alliance that backs Damascus told Reuters the Syrian government and its allies had “absorbed” the attack. The sites that were targeted had been evacuated days ago thanks to a warning from Russia, the official said.</p>
<p>“If it is finished, and there is no second round, it will be considered limited,” the official said.</p>
<p>Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said on Twitter: “Again, we are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences.”</p>
<p>Syrian state media called the attack a “flagrant violation of international law.” An official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it would cause consequences that were against U.S. interests.</p>
<p>French Defence Minister Florence Parly said the Russians “were warned beforehand” to avoid inadvertant escalation.</p> “ABSORBED THE STRIKE”
<p>At least six loud explosions were heard in Damascus and smoke was seen rising over the city, a Reuters witness said. A second witness said the Barzah district of Damascus had been hit in the strikes. Barzah is the location of a major Syrian scientific research center.</p>
<p>Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S.-led attacks and said Washington and its allies would bear responsibility for the consequences in the region and beyond, state media reported.</p>
<p>State-controlled Syrian TV said Syrian air defenses shot down 13 missiles fired in the attack. The Russian defense ministry said none of the rockets launched had entered zones where Russian air defense systems are protecting military facilities in Tartus and Hmeimim.</p>
<p>The combined U.S., British and French assault appeared more intense than a similar strike Trump ordered almost exactly a year ago against a Syrian air base in retaliation for an earlier chemical weapons attack that Washington attributed to Assad.</p> A missile is seen crossing over Damascus, Syria April 14, 2018. SANA/Handout via REUTERS
<p>Mattis said the United States conducted the air strikes with conclusive evidence that chlorine gas was used in the April 7 attack in Syria. Evidence that the nerve agent sarin also was used was inconclusive, he said.</p>
<p>Allegations of Assad’s chlorine use are frequent in Syria’s conflict, raising questions about whether Washington had lowered the threshold for military action in Syria by deciding to strike after a chlorine attack. Syria agreed in 2013 to give up its chemical weapons. It is still permitted to have chlorine for civilian use, although its use as a weapon is banned.</p>
<p>Mattis, who U.S. officials said had earlier warned in internal debates that too large an attack would risk confrontation with Russia, described the strikes as a one-off to dissuade Assad from “doing this again”.</p>
<p>But a U.S. official familiar with the military planning said there could be more air strikes if the intelligence indicates Assad has not stopped making, importing, storing or using chemical weapons including chlorine. The official said this could require a more sustained U.S. air and naval presence in the region, as well as more surveillance.</p> EXIT SYRIA?
<p>Trump has been leery of U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, and is eager to withdraw roughly 2,000 troops in Syria taking part in the campaign against Islamic State.</p>
<p>“America does not seek an indefinite presence in Syria, under no circumstances,” Trump said in his address. “The purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons.”</p> Slideshow (11 Images)
<p>The U.S. president, who has tried to build good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, had sharply critical words for Russia and Iran over their support of Assad.</p>
<p>“To Iran and to Russia, I ask, what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?” Trump said.</p>
<p>Last year, the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the guided missile destroyers USS Porter and the USS Ross that struck the Shayrat air base.</p>
<p>At the time, the Pentagon said that a fifth of Syria’s operational aircraft were either damaged or destroyed.</p>
<p>Reporting by Steve Holland and Tom Perry; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Tim Ahmann, Eric Beech, Lesley Wroughton, Lucia Mutikani, Idrees Ali, Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick and John Walcott in Washington; Samia Nakhoul, Tom Perry, Laila Bassam Ellen Francis in Beirut; Michael Holden and Guy Faulconbridge in London; and Jean-Baptiste Vey, Geert de Clerq and Matthias Blamont in Paris; Polina Ivanova in Moscow; Writing by Yara Bayoumy, Warren Strobel, Nick Tattersall and Peter Graff; Editing by Angus MacSwan</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition said on Saturday Western missile strikes would not be enough to change the course of the seven-year-old civil war, and the army said it would crush remaining rebel-held parts of the country.</p> A Syrian soldier waves a flag during a protest against air strikes in Damascus,Syria April 14,2018.REUTERS/ Omar Sanadiki
<p>The action by the United States, Britain, and France targeted President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons capabilities in response to a deadly poison gas attack near Damascus a week ago, Washington said.</p>
<p>But rebels and opposition politicians said the Western powers should also have hit Assad’s conventional weapons which have killed many more people during the war.</p>
<p>“Maybe the regime will not use chemical weapons again, but it will not hesitate to use weapons...such as barrel bombs,” opposition leader Nasr al-Hariri said in a Tweet.</p>
<p>A rebel fighter said he was bracing for further attacks by the government with its allies on rebel territory in the northwest, which a senior Iranian official has indicated could be the next target.</p>
<p>“I am expecting an escalation by the regime against civilians in Idlib and in the areas of northern Syria and the liberated areas, because the regime always takes revenge on civilians,” the rebel told Reuters from Hama province.</p>
<p>“More was expected from the American strike to affect the path of the war and to curb Assad’s crimes.”</p>
<p>Damascus and its allies have said reports about poison gas in Douma were fabricated as a pretext for Western strikes.</p>
<p>The suspected gas attack, which medical relief groups said killed dozens, led rebels holed up in Douma to finally surrender the town. That clinched a big victory for Assad by wiping out the last insurgent pocket in the eastern Ghouta region near the capital.</p>
<p>The war has been going Assad’s way since Russia intervened on his side in 2015. From holding less than a fifth of Syria in 2015, Assad has recovered to control the largest chunk of the country with Russian and Iranian help.</p>
<p>The Syrian presidency posted a video appearing to show Assad arriving for work on Saturday morning a few hours after the U.S.-led attack, dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase.</p>
<p>Though swathes of Syria remain beyond his grasp, the insurgency currently poses no military threat to his rule.</p>
<p>The opposition has praised President Donald Trump for taking action against Assad after criticizing former U.S. President Barack Obama for failing to enforce his own red line when Assad was accused of using gas in 2013. But they want more.</p>
<p>“The strike has weakened the regime, but has not strengthened the opposition,” said a second rebel commander.</p>
<p>Trump last year decided to halt a CIA program that had funneled weapons and cash to rebel Free Syrian Army groups.</p> “LIBERATING IDLIB”
<p>Having driven rebels from eastern Ghouta, Assad and his allies are expected to soon retake the last few insurgent pockets around Damascus and nearby.</p>
<p>The bigger challenge will be rebel territory at the frontiers with Turkey, Jordan and Israel, and the swathe of eastern and northern Syria which Kurdish-led militias control with support from the United States.</p>
<p>Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, on a visit to Damascus this week, said he hoped Syria and its allies would soon drive U.S. troops from the country. He also said he hoped the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria would be captured from rebels very soon.</p>
<p>The Syrian army said the United States, Britain and France launched nearly 110 missiles on targets in the capital Damascus and other territory, and air defense systems brought most of them down.</p>
<p>“Such attacks will not deter our armed forces and allied forces from persisting to crush what is left of the armed terrorist groups,” the military said.</p>
<p>The foreign ministry said the Western strikes would only “lead to inflaming tensions in the world” and threaten international security.</p>
<p>“The barbaric aggression ...will not affect in any way the determination and insistence of the Syrian people and their heroic armed forces,” state media cited an official source in the ministry as saying.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ellen Francis; editing by Angus MacSwan</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Air strikes carried out by the United States, France and Britain against Syrian military targets could give terrorism an opportunity to expand in the region, the Iraqi foreign ministry said on Saturday.</p>
<p>The air strikes marked a “a very dangerous development”, the ministry said in statement.</p>
<p>“Such action could have dangerous consequences, threatening the security and stability of the region and giving terrorism another opportunity to expand after it was ousted from Iraq and forced into Syria to retreat to a large extent,” it said.</p>
<p>The ministry called on Arab leaders to discuss the situation at a summit due to be held in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.</p>
<p>Iraq’s position is in line with those of Russia and Iran, the main backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war which has raged in his country since 2011.</p>
<p>The United States, France and Britain have accused Assad of attacking the Douma suburb of Damascus with chemical agents on April 7. They say the air strikes on Saturday had been aimed at deterring his further use of chemical weapons.</p>
<p>Shi’ite-led Iraq has kept good relations with Assad’s government and Iran, while also receiving massive military and financial support from the United States, Britain and France.</p>
<p>A U.S-led military coalition provided key air and ground support to the Iraqi government forces last year to recapture Mosul and other cities seized by Islamic State in 2014.</p>
<p>Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last month said he wants “to keep away” from the conflict between the United States and Iran.</p>
<p>Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Jason Neely</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - France said on Saturday it would not hesitate to strike Syrian government targets again if the chemical red line was crossed, but that no new strikes were planned at this stage, adding that it would renew a push for peace through dialogue with Russia.</p> French President Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting as part of the joint airstrike operation by the British, French and U.S. militaries in this picture obtained on April 14, 2018 via social media. Emmanuel Macron/Twitter/via REUTERS
<p>President Emmanuel Macron ordered the military intervention in Syria alongside the United States and Britain in response to a poison gas attack that killed dozens of people last week.</p>
<p>“Our objectives were met,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM TV.</p>
<p>If the red line banning the use of chemical weapons was crossed again, there would be another intervention, he said, while adding: “I think the lesson will have been learnt.”</p>
<p>The French strikes, involving 12 cruise missiles, fighter jets and warships, were Macron’s first major military decision since taking office a year ago and was all but inevitable after the young president repeatedly said France would strike if a fatal chemical attack took place in Syria.</p>
<p>“This action was proportionate and targeted, it was not aimed at (Syrian President Bashar al) Assad’s allies nor at the civilian population,” Le Drian said in a televised statement.</p>
<p>Le Drian said France, which has backed opponents of Assad throughout the civil war, would swiftly take new political initiatives to find a solution to the crisis.</p>
<p>He added that Paris would work with all countries and that there were no changes to Macron’s planned trip to Russia next month.</p>
<p>While there had been general public warnings broadcast by U.S. President Donald Trump, Macron himself and other Western leaders, a French presidency source said Macron did not tell Russian President Vladimir Putin the allies would strike overnight when they talked over the phone on Friday.</p>
<p>However, regular “deconfliction” contacts were made with the Russian military once the operation had been kicked off to make sure that they would not be accidentally hit, the source said.</p>
<p>Defense Minister Florence Parly said this meant Russia had been “warned beforehand” to avoid any confrontation or escalation.</p>
<p>The French presidency issued a video on Twitter showing what it said were war planes taking off as part of the intervention.</p>
<p>Macron said in a written statement that the attack had been limited to Syria’s chemical weapons facilities and said the facts and the responsibility of the Syrian regime were beyond doubt.</p>
<p>Backing up its reasons for the air strikes, the foreign ministry released an intelligence report based largely on open sources which concluded that there was no other plausible explanation than a chemical attacked coordinated by the Syrian military.</p>
<p>The report said that for now France did not have chemical samples from the attack site analyzed by its own laboratories yet.</p>
<p>Macron, who tweeted a picture of himself in a meeting room with military and diplomatic advisers, has not made any address to the nation. He is due to be interviewed by three French media on Sunday night.</p>
<p>The French air force has been active in Syria since 2015 to fight Islamic State, but had not targeted government targets until now.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Geert De Clercq and John Irish; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by John Irish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Lerado Financial Group Expects To Record A Fair Value Loss On Equity Investments Of About Hk$590 Mln For FY2017 U.S., British, French air strikes target Syrian chemical capabilities Syrian army vows to press war, rebels say strikes not enough Western air strikes on Syria could let terrorism expand: Iraq France: Syria strikes' aim met, more possible if red line crossed | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-lerado-financial-group-expects-to/brief-lerado-financial-group-expects-to-record-a-fair-value-loss-on-equity-investments-of-about-hk590-mln-for-fy2017-idUSFWN1PD148 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A Maryland man has been charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl who kept him hidden in her basement.</p>
<p>The News-Enterprise <a href="http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/news/crime_and_courts/maryland-man-faces-rape-charges-involving-minor/article_2d05351c-4d7e-5391-b7ed-900535c2de9f.html" type="external">reports</a> 20-year-old Domenico Antonio Bucci was arrested Wednesday. He faces up to 10 years if convicted on each of six counts of rape and sodomy.</p>
<p>An arrest warrant says the girl “snuck” Bucci into the family basement, where he hid for five days before the girl’s mother contacted police.</p>
<p>Police say Bucci met the girl online, and had sex with her multiple times despite knowing her age. He’s being held on $100,000 bond pending a Feb. 2 hearing.</p>
<p>ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A Maryland man has been charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl who kept him hidden in her basement.</p>
<p>The News-Enterprise <a href="http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/news/crime_and_courts/maryland-man-faces-rape-charges-involving-minor/article_2d05351c-4d7e-5391-b7ed-900535c2de9f.html" type="external">reports</a> 20-year-old Domenico Antonio Bucci was arrested Wednesday. He faces up to 10 years if convicted on each of six counts of rape and sodomy.</p>
<p>An arrest warrant says the girl “snuck” Bucci into the family basement, where he hid for five days before the girl’s mother contacted police.</p>
<p>Police say Bucci met the girl online, and had sex with her multiple times despite knowing her age. He’s being held on $100,000 bond pending a Feb. 2 hearing.</p> | Rape charges for man who hid in 13-year-old girl’s basement | false | https://apnews.com/675f25a8c7c04d8c9b5e1ef43299165b | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>From California to Washington, the West Coast is a Left Coast — a land of sexual hedonism, lax drug laws, and socialism. No surprise then that this "Left Coast" is now the epicenter of a surging homeless population.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/47662ad74baf4bb09f40619e4fd25a94/West-Coast-crisis-leads-to-rise-in-US-homeless-population" type="external">Associated Press</a>, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its "annual <a href="https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/pit-and-hic-data-since-2007/" type="external">Point in Time count</a> Wednesday, a report that showed nearly 554,000 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January. That figure is up nearly 1 percent from 2016."</p>
<p>They continued: "Of that total, 193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and instead were staying in vehicles, tents, the streets and other places considered uninhabitable. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9 percent compared to two years ago."</p>
<p>Since 2015, the homeless population in West Coast cities has seen such an <a href="https://apnews.com/d480434bbacd4b028ff13cd1e7cea155/Amid-booming-economy,-homelessness-soars-on-US-West-Coast" type="external">explosion</a> that 10 city and county governments have declared states of emergency. Exactly what do city officials blame for this problem? Not drugs, not family breakdowns, not inadequate housing for the mentally ill, but rather a " <a href="https://apnews.com/9309128222ab4c4f92b0d0022e1ec133/%27We-still-need-to-eat%27:-Tech-boom-creates-working-homeless" type="external">booming economy</a>. "</p>
<p>"Rents have soared beyond affordability for many lower-wage workers who until just a just few years ago could typically find a place to stay," reports AP. "Now, even a temporary setback can be enough to leave them out on the streets."</p>
<p>Thomas Butler Jr., a homeless man living in a tent near a Los Angeles freeway ramp, concurs with that conclusion: "A lot of people in America don’t realize they might be two checks, three checks, four checks away from being homeless."</p>
<p>People in the states of California, Oregon and Washington have taken notice of the sudden outbreak of homeless encampments popping up under freeways and rivers. The city governments have not cracked down on street camping, and as a result, a spread of hepatitis A — a liver damaging virus spread by feces — has afflicted Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and San Diego. The Associated Press has more:</p>
<p>The outbreak prompted California officials to declare a state of emergency in October.</p>
<p>The HUD report underscores the severity of the problem along the West Coast.</p>
<p>While the overall homeless population in California, Oregon and Washington grew by 14 percent over the past two years, the part of that population considered unsheltered climbed 23 percent to 108,000. That is in part due a shortage of affordable housing.</p>
<p>In booming Seattle, for example, the HUD report shows the unsheltered population grew by 44 percent over two years to nearly 5,500.</p>
<p>The homeless service area that includes most of Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis, saw its total homeless count top 55,000 people, up by more than 13,000 from 2016. Four out of every five homeless individuals there are considered unsheltered, leaving tens of thousands of people with no place to sleep other than the streets or parks.</p>
<p>The outbreak affects not only the safety, health and overall aesthetic of the city, it also affects business. Some bars, such as The Monty bar near downtown Los Angeles, have to wait until after 8 p.m to open their doors "because a nearby shelter requires people staying there to be in the building by 7."</p>
<p>Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has called for more federal funds to combat the homeless problem.</p>
<p>“Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis was not created in a vacuum, and it cannot be solved by L.A. alone,” Garcetti said in a statement.</p> | The Lefty West Coast Has A HUGE Homeless Problem | true | https://dailywire.com/news/24394/lefty-west-coast-has-huge-homeless-problem-paul-bois | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
<p>He's been described as "the most powerful person you've never heard of," and "Cheney's Cheney." He's David Addington, the vice president's chief of staff, and he's behind the legal arguments to support presidential-sanctioned torture, the attempt to discredit Joe Wilson, and the bogus Niger uranium story. The New Yorker has a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060703fa_fact1" type="external">must-read profile.</a></p>
<p>The New Yorker:</p>
<p>On December 18th, Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, joined other prominent Washington figures at FedEx Field, the Redskins' stadium, in a skybox belonging to the team's owner. During the game, between the Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys, Powell spoke of a recent report in the Times which revealed that President Bush, in his pursuit of terrorists, had secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens without first obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by federal law. This requirement, which was instituted by Congress in 1978, after the Watergate scandal, was designed to protect civil liberties and curb abuses of executive power, such as Nixon's secret monitoring of political opponents and the F.B.I.?s eavesdropping on Martin Luther King, Jr. Nixon had claimed that as President he had the "inherent authority" to spy on people his Administration deemed enemies, such as the anti-Vietnam War activist Daniel Ellsberg. Both Nixon and the institution of the Presidency had paid a high price for this assumption. But, according to the Times, since 2002 the legal checks that Congress constructed to insure that no President would repeat Nixon's actions had been secretly ignored.</p>
<p>According to someone who knows Powell, his comment about the article was terse. "It's Addington," he said. "He doesn't care about the Constitution." Powell was referring to David S. Addington, Vice-President Cheney's chief of staff and his longtime principal legal adviser. Powell's office says that he does not recall making the statement. But his former top aide, Lawrence Wilkerson, confirms that he and Powell shared this opinion of Addington.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060703fa_fact1" type="external">Link</a></p> | Cheney's Legal Hit Man | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/cheneys-legal-hit-man/ | 2006-07-01 | 4 |
<p>WASHINGTON — The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to these people, who would not further identify the official.</p>
<p>The revelation comes as the investigation also appears to be entering a more overtly active phase, with investigators shifting from work that has remained largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, the people said.</p>
<p>The sources emphasized that investigators remain keenly interested in people who previously wielded influence in the Trump campaign and administration but are no longer part of it, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Flynn resigned in February</a> after disclosures that he had lied to administration officials about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Current administration officials who have acknowledged contacts with Russian officials include Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Cabinet members Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.</p>
<p>People familiar with the investigation said the intensifying effort does not mean criminal charges are near, or that any such charges will result. Earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel and lead the investigation into Russian meddling.</p>
<p>It is unclear exactly how Mueller’s leadership will affect the direction of the probe, and he is already bringing in new people to work on the team. Those familiar with the case said its significance had increased before Mueller’s appointment.</p>
<p>While the case began quietly last July as an effort to determine whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russian operatives to meddle in the presidential election campaign, the investigative work now being done by the FBI also includes determining whether any financial crimes were committed by people close to the president. The people familiar with the matter said the probe has sharpened into something more fraught for the White House, the FBI and the Justice Department — particularly because of the public steps investigators know they now need to take, the people said.</p>
<p>When subpoenas are issued or interviews are requested, it is possible the people being asked to talk or provide documents will reveal publicly what they were asked about.</p>
<p>A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight were notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing on Wednesday evening, the people familiar with the matter said. FBI Director James Comey had publicly confirmed the existence of the investigation in March.</p>
<p>Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said, “I can’t confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations or targets of investigations.”</p>
<p>An FBI spokesman declined to comment.</p>
<p>White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, “as the president has stated before, a thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity.”</p>
<p>While there has been a loud public debate in recent days over the question of whether the president might have attempted to obstruct justice in his private dealings with FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired last week, people familiar with the matter said investigators on the case are more focused on Russian influence operations and possible financial crimes.</p>
<p>The FBI’s investigation seeks to determine whether and to what extent Trump associates were in contact with Kremlin operatives, what business dealings they might have had in Russia, and whether they in any way facilitated the hacking and publishing of Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails during the presidential campaign. Several congressional committees are also investigating, though their probes could not produce criminal charges.</p>
<p>A grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, recently issued a subpoena for records related to Flynn’s business, The Flynn Intel Group, which had been paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials, according to people familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>The Flynn Intel Group was paid for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkey’s current president believes was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.</p>
<p>Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagon’s top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.</p>
<p>Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Donald Trump took office, and he withheld that fact from even Vice President Mike Pence. That prompted then Acting Attorney General Sally Yates to warn the White House’s top lawyer he might be susceptible to blackmail. Flynn stepped down after The Washington Post reported on the contents of the call.</p>
<p>The president has nonetheless seemed to defend his former adviser. <a href="" type="internal">A memo by fired FBI Director Comey</a> alleged Trump even asked that the probe into Flynn be shut down.</p>
<p>The White House also has acknowledged that Kushner met with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., in late November. Kushner also has acknowledged that he met with the head of a Russian development bank, Vnesheconombank, which has been under U.S. sanctions since July 2014. The president’s son in law initially omitted contacts with foreign leaders from a national security questionnaire, though his lawyer has said publicly he submitted the form prematurely and informed the FBI soon after he would provide an update.</p>
<p>Vnesheconombank handles development for the state, and in early 2015, a man purporting to be one of its New York-based employees was arrested and accused of being an unregistered spy.</p>
<p>That man — Evgeny Buryakov — ultimately pleaded guilty and was eventually deported. He had been in contact with former Trump adviser Carter Page, though Page has said he shared only “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents” with the Russian. Page was the subject of a secret warrant last year issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, based on suspicions he might have been acting as an agent of the Russian government, according to people familiar with the matter. Page has denied any wrongdoing, and accused the government of violating his civil rights.</p> | White House official is person of interest in Russia probe | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/white-house-official-is-person-of-interest-in-russia-probe/ | 2017-05-19 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>An Albuquerque Police Officer talks to a man near the scene of a suspicious death near 3500 block of Plateau Place NW. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Officers conducting a welfare check near Coors and Sequoia NW Thursday afternoon discovered a dead person, according to a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department.</p>
<p>An apartment complex on Plateau Place was roped off with crime tape, and APD’s mobile crime lab and command center were parked in the parking lot.</p>
<p>Officer Daren DeAguero said the death is being treated as suspicious. He did not say how the person died.</p>
<p>“At this time we are investigating all avenues into the death of the subject,” he said.</p>
<p>He did not provide the gender or name of the person.</p>
<p>-This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.</p>
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police investigating a suspicious death in NW ABQ | false | https://abqjournal.com/917911/police-investigating-a-suspicious-death-in-nw-albuquerque.html | 2 |
|
<p>HAVANA — Cuban revolutionary leader <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel Castro</a> delivered a valedictory speech Tuesday to the Communist Party that he put in power a half-century ago, telling party members he will soon die and exhorting them to help his ideas survive.</p>
<p>“I’ll be 90 years old soon,” <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Castro</a> said in his most extensive public appearance in years. “Soon I’ll be like all the others. The time will come for all of us, but the ideas of the Cuban Communists will remain as proof on this planet that if they are worked at with fervor and dignity, they can produce the material and cultural goods that human beings need, and we need to fight without a truce to obtain them.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Castro</a> spoke as the government announced that his brother Raul will retain the Cuban Communist Party’s highest post alongside his hardline second-in-command. That announcement and <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel Castro</a>’s speech together delivered a resounding message that the island’s revolutionary generation will remain in control even as its members age and die, relations with the U.S. are normalized, and popular dissatisfaction grows over the country’s economic performance.</p>
<p>Fifty-five years after <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel Castro</a> declared that Cuba’s revolution was socialist and began installing a single-party system and centrally planned economy, the Cuban government is battling a deep crisis of credibility.</p>
<p>With no memory of the revolution’s heady first decades, younger Cubans complain bitterly about low state salaries of about $25 a month that leave them struggling to afford food and other staple goods. Cuba’s creaky state-run media and cultural institutions compete with flashy foreign programming shared online and on memory drives passed hand-to-hand. Emigration to the United States and other countries has soared to one of its highest points since the revolution.</p>
<p>Limited openings to private enterprise have stalled, and the government describes capitalism as a threat even as it appears unable to increase productivity in Cuba’s inefficient, theft-plagued networks of state-run enterprises.</p>
<p>The ideological gulf between government and people widened last month when President Barack Obama became the first U.S. leader to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years and delivered a widely praised speech live on state television urging Cubans to forget the history of hostility between the U.S. and Cuba and move toward a new era of normal diplomatic and economic relations.</p>
<p>The Cuban government offered little unified response until the Communist Party’s Seventh Party Congress began Saturday, and one high-ranking official after another warned that the U.S. was still an enemy that wants to take control of Cuba. They said Obama’s trip represented an ideological “attack.”</p>
<p>That defensive stance was reinforced Tuesday as the congress ended and the government said Raul Castro, 84, would remain the party’s first secretary and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura would hold the post of second secretary for at least part of a second five-year term.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Castro</a> currently is both president and party first secretary. The decision means <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Castro</a> could hold a Communist Party position at least as powerful as the presidency even after he is presumably replaced by a younger president in 2018.</p>
<p>Machado Ventura, 85, who fought alongside the Castro brothers to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, is known as an enforcer of Communist orthodoxy and voice against some of the biggest recent economic reforms.</p>
<p>He often has been employed by the Castros to impose order in areas seen as lacking discipline, most recently touring the country to crack down on private sellers of fruits, vegetables and other agricultural goods. While Raul Castro opened Cuba’s faltering agricultural economy to private enterprise, the government has blamed a new class of private farmers and produce merchants for a rise in prices.</p>
<p>Shortly after the congress ended Tuesday afternoon, government-run television showed rare images of 89-year-old <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel Castro</a> seated at the dais in Havana’s Convention Palace, dressed in a plaid shirt and sweat top and speaking to the crowd in a strong if occasionally trembling voice. State television showed at least one delegate tearful with emotion, and the crowd greeting the revolutionary leader with shouts of “ <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel</a>!”</p>
<p>“This may be one of the last times I speak in this room,” <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel Castro</a> said. “We must tell our brothers in Latin America and the world that the Cuban people will be victorious.”</p>
<p>The party congress had been criticized for secrecy and a lack of discussion about substantive new reforms. <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Castro</a>’s speech and his brother’s promise that more extensive public debate would come in the weeks and months after the congress appeared to have at least temporarily quelled discontent among the party ranks.</p>
<p>“The Cuban people are followers of <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel</a> and he’s a force that still has a lot of power,” said Francisco Rodríguez, a party member who had publicly criticized the secrecy of the congress. “It’s easy to love <a href="/topics/fidel-castro/" type="external">Fidel</a> now that he doesn’t have a public position. He’s a person who always had a coherent idea and that makes him an exalted figure.”</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Fidel Castro tells Cuba’s Communist Party he will soon die | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/19/fidel-castro-says-he-will-soon-die/ | 2016-04-19 | 0 |
<p>Since May, 2017 an ongoing insurgency has been raging in the Shia heartland town of Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia and it’s only thanks to the BBC being allowed to enter the area and film the destruction that the world can see how the House of Saud’s war against the Shia population of Yemen has now expanded to include the Shia population of eastern Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>The BBC World report shown on Wednesday, August 16, seemed to have come from Syria, with al-Zara, the ancient Shia capital of the Persian province of Bahrain and the rest of the town of Awamiya showing a level of devastation resembling that in Syria or to the Kurdish cities destroyed recently by Erdogan Ottoman’s Janissarris.</p>
<p>Block by block destruction of the Old City with no visible signs of the Shia people who once lived here for millenia with almost 500 buildings destroyed and over 20,000 driven from their homes by Saudi airstrikes, artillery and mortar fire.</p>
<p>The BBC crew was only allowed there in armored vehicles, filming through bullet proof windows while traveling as a part of an armored convoy. The one time they were allowed to stop and step outside the battlewagons they were riding, firing could by heard and they were quickly ordered to return to their vehicles so they could escape.</p>
<p>This short view of an almost unknown urban war in the midst of the Saudi oilfields, with 2 million barrels a day being pumped via Awamiya alone (20% of total Saudi exports) with the House of Saud, after Russia, being the 2nd largest oil producer worldwide, should be sending shivers down the spines of those occupying the seats of power both east and west.</p>
<p>How long the Shia rebellion in eastern Saudi Arabia, home to almost all Saudi oil reserves, will be able to maintain an armed resistance to the Saudi military assault is the 10 million barrel a day question.</p>
<p>The excuse given by the House of Saud royal family mouthpieces is they were driving the Shia from their ancient homeland for “urban renewal” purposes. Never mind the “renewing” would destroy world heritage sites such as the ancient town of al-Zara, capital of the Shia, Persian province of Bahrain for millenia past and sacred to the Shia population and in the process “relocate” the Shia population as far a possible from the Saudi oil fields.</p>
<p>Wahabi is as Wahabi does with the crimes committed in the name of Sunni Islam in Yemen now being carried out next door to their cousins, the Saudi Shia. Only the silence of the media lambs internationally alongside the UN, allows this to go unnoticed, for a double standard has long existed when it comes to condemning the crimes of the House of Saud. After the latest round of beheadings of Shia leaders protests turned to gunfire in Awamiya and the fires of armed revolution have been lit for the first time in Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>The Shia of eastern Saudi Arabia are cousins to their rather unorthodox Houthi neighbors in Yemen with a long history of intermarriage and commerce. The flood of small arms that has plagued Yemen for decades past have over the years made its way into the hands of the Shia population in the midst of the House of Saud’s oil fields. While many waited in vain for the armed struggle to break out in Bahrain instead it exploded in the cultural heartland of this once Persian province and in a much more strategically critical location, in Awamiya and ancient al-Zara.</p>
<p>While still early, for almost 4 months now the armed resistance in Awamiya appears to have fought the Saudi army into a stalemate, surviving heavy air and artillery bombardment, with shots still ringing whenever the armed might of the House of Saud ventures within range of their small arms. If this very first armed uprising is able to maintain their determination to see an end to their oppression by their Wahabi occupiers similar to the relentless fight being waged by the mainly Houthi based resistance in Yemen then all hell could break lose.</p>
<p>Losing control of their oil fields would inevitably bring down the Royal House of Saud, in power since their installation by the British after WWI.</p>
<p>If this armed uprising survives the Saudi Army onslaught and can spread to villages and towns throughout Shia eastern Saudi Arabia and the over 3 million strong Shia people take up arms against the regime similar to their cousins in Yemen those shivers running down the spines of the lords of power east and west could quickly grow to be migraine headaches as a major portion of the world’s oil supplies could be threatened if not cut off.</p> | Shia Insurrection in Saudi Arabia; The Battle for Awamiya | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/08/28/shia-insurrection-in-saudi-arabia-the-battle-for-awamiya/ | 2017-08-28 | 4 |
<p>ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece expects a larger-than-targeted primary budget surplus this year and plans to tap bond markets again within seven months, a senior finance ministry official said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Athens is keen to quickly conclude a third bailout review with its international creditors, helping smooth its return to market financing, as its rescue program ends next August.</p>
<p>Greece returned to bond markets for the first time in three years in July. It sold 3 billion euros of new five-year bonds alongside a tender to buy back outstanding 5-year paper issued in 2014.</p>
<p>“Within the next six to seven months there will be efforts to tap bond markets,” the ministry official told reporters, declining to be named.</p>
<p>“It will involve (raising) new money and a bit of debt management. This why we want to conclude the third bailout review fast, by January.”</p>
<p>Without specifying a figure, the official said the country is this year set to exceed a targeted 1.75-percent-of-GDP primary budget surplus, which excludes debt servicing costs.</p>
<p>Last week Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the government was determined to beat its fiscal targets and speed up the conclusion of the third review, promising a “dividend” to the vulnerable.</p>
<p>The official said the planned handout would not be distributed to low-income pensioners, as last year when Tsipras unexpectedly announced a one-off Christmas bonus to retirees, angering the country’s lenders.</p>
<p>“The (fiscal outperformance) will not go to pensioners, it will go toward other social spending, to pay down state arrears and growth projects.”</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Greece to beat budget target, plans more bonds: finance ministry official | false | https://newsline.com/greece-to-beat-budget-target-plans-more-bonds-finance-ministry-official/ | 2017-09-13 | 1 |
<p>Riddle me this: Does the world, or Mini for that matter, really need yet another version of what is basically the same car? Probably not. But here it is, the Mini Cooper S Paceman coupe. The Paceman is a two-door version of the recently released four-door Countryman crossover utility. Which is a distended version of the Clubman station wagon. With all the Mini’s many iterations, this latest offering comes across as a slightly cynical exercise in niche marketing. A cake can be cut into ever-thinner slices, but hey, they all basically taste the same. Those attracted by the Mini concept but who find the original size just too small, this one’s aimed at you. Although the increase in cabin room, especially notable in the rear seats, is much appreciated, the bigger car has lost a bit of its joie de vivre that makes its smaller siblings such a blast to drive. A good deal of the blame lies with the added poundage the little turbo four-cylinder has to contend with. Weighing in at 3,210 pounds, the Paceman carries an additional 542 pounds over the regular Mini Cooper S hatchback. Granted, our tester did have all-wheel drive (which contributes somewhat to the heft) as well as the optional six-speed automatic transmission, which undoubtedly puts a further damper on the coupe’s go-quotient. The bigger Mini (Maxi?) also has sacrificed some of its go-kartlike handling. Again, the culprit seems to be weight. Whereas the regular Cooper changes direction as though wired directly to the driver’s thought processes, the Paceman takes a more deliberate tack around corners.</p>
<p>Make no mistake, it’s still thoroughly enjoyable, just slightly less crisp, less “fling-able.” Braking remains solid and powerful, lending confidence to the proceedings. Like other Mini models, the cabin is caught in a kind of retro trap. While the Paceman’s interior materials are a definite step up from the earlier cars, there is still a lot of hard, black plastic. A pizza-size speedometer still dominates the center of the dash, providing a home for audio and nav displays. At long last, the electric window switches have moved from toggle switches on the lower console to the door arm rests. But overall, the dash and switchgear layout seems to be getting rather stale. The form-fitting seats are nicely shaped and do a fine job of holding occupants in place during spirited sprints, but adjusting them is best done before driving away due to the awkward inboard location of the controls. Is a Mini in size XL an oxymoron? Maybe, but the Paceman is still a Mini, just a bit more grown up.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2013 Cooper S Paceman All4 coupe: the not-so-Mini | false | https://abqjournal.com/192843/2013-cooper-s-paceman-all4-coupe-the-not-so-mini.html | 2013-04-27 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>“My whole family were Republican at one time,” Griego, 64, said. “My dad was on (Santa Fe) city council and was county chairman of the Republican party. He was very involved in politics and was able to work both sides.”</p>
<p>Dunn’s father, Aubrey Dunn Sr., was a Democratic state senator for 15 years, and Dunn Jr. was a registered voter with that party for some time.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I was a Democrat until Bruce King lost the last time,” Dunn, 56, said. “When I decided to get active in politics in 1995 or ‘96, I decided to be Republican.”</p>
<p>Both candidates say they were heavily influenced by their fathers, and not just by their politics.</p>
<p>“The biggest takeaway I got from him was he got into public service was just that,” Dunn said. “He did it for public service and not for any other reason.</p>
<p>“Aside from that, integrity and honesty; that’s what comes through,” he continued. “Growing up, I remember being in a restaurant in Santa Fe and there were lobbyists there who tried to buy him a meal. My dad just sent it back and said, ‘I don’t do that.’ And I saw him do that throughout his political career.”</p>
<p>“My dad (grocer Tito Griego) was my best friend,” said Griego, CEO of American Surety Title Co. in Santa Fe.</p>
<p>“Every time I had a problem, we’d sit down and talk about it. He guided me as I grew up. He showed me how to treat people and showed me the importance of God and family. He gave me my principles socially, politically and spiritually.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Politically, Griego said his father taught him three things.</p>
<p>“He told me don’t ever lie; you dance with who brought you to the dance, and that’s my district; and when you’re in an elected position, you don’t own it, you lease it. It’s up to the people to decide how long you’ll stay,” he said.</p>
<p>Griego has leased his seat in District 39 since 1997 and is an established figure in the Senate. During the last legislative session, he ranked second among lawmakers in the number of bills sponsored that were signed into law.</p>
<p>Many of those bills related to rural issues, a focus for him throughout his tenure.</p>
<p>“As a rancher, I understand the problems ranchers and farmers face,” he said. “When I go around the district, I talk to a lot of them and I understand the issues about water, the cost of a bale of hay and livestock. You understand, because you’ve done it and you’re doing it. … We speak the same language.”</p>
<p>Dunn, who grew up on an apple farm, got into ranching later in life.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“When I first got married, one of our goals was to own a ranch,” he said. “I bought my first ranch in ‘96, just got into it, and we learned as we went.”</p>
<p>Before that, Dunn was a banker, and he still does some consulting work in that field. He spent 10 of his 25 years in banking as president and CEO of the First Federal Bank in Roswell, and as recently as last year finished a stint as interim president of Valley National Bank in Española.</p>
<p>“I mainly got into banking so I could ranch,” he said.</p>
<p>One story Dunn likes to tell on the campaign trail relates ranching to politics. He said he’ll travel around his ranch and supplement his cows’ diet by dropping off cubes made of grains.</p>
<p>“When we go out and feed them, there’s always a group of cows waiting at the gate. I call those Obama cows,” he said. “They wait there for a handout, and become enslaved to the feed truck.</p>
<p>“It’s the same way with people. The ones that become dependent don’t do as well. They don’t look to feed themselves, but rely on the government.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Meandering district</p>
<p>While Dunn and Griego may have similar backgrounds, they are miles apart in realigned District 39, which now extends from the western outskirts of Santa Fe east to Griego’s San Jose ranch in the north, to Dunn’s Mayhill spread down south in Lincoln County.</p>
<p>“It’s become one of the largest Senate districts,” said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research and Polling, which had a hand in the redistricting process. “It’s perhaps the most meandering district in the state and includes a good portion of San Miguel, Santa Fe, Torrance, Valencia and Lincoln counties and goes as far south as Ruidoso. In the past, it didn’t go nearly as far south.”</p>
<p>Sanderoff said District 39 lost portions of Los Alamos, Taos and Mora counties and picked up sections of Torrance, Valencia and Lincoln in redistricting last year.</p>
<p>The political makeup make-up of the district also has changed, though not dramatically. Sanderoff said.</p>
<p>“It’s always been a predominantly Democratic district and still is, but much less so,” he said. “It picked up Torrance and Lincoln counties, which are predominantly Republican. It used to be a safe Democratic seat, now it’s a lean Democratic seat.”</p>
<p>There were initial fireworks the race during the primary campaign season earlier this year. Dunn complained that a group with ties to Republican Gov. Susana Martinez spent money on behalf of Griego in Griego’s Democratic primary race against two opponents.</p>
<p>Sanderoff said he doesn’t envy either candidate having to campaign within the district.</p>
<p>“It’s never been known as a compact district,” he said, “but now it’s a very large and meandering district and would be hard for anyone to campaign in, for sure.”</p> | Griego, Dunn Share Quite a Bit | false | https://abqjournal.com/140036/griego-dunn-share-quite-a-bit.html | 2012-10-20 | 2 |
<p>The United Press International recently highlighted a survey in England, which shows that eating plenty of yogurt may help to reduce the chances of developing adult-onset diabetes.</p>
<p>Researchers noted that participants who ate at least a 125 gram serving of yogurt four to five times per week have a 28 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who did not eat yogurt. The University of Cambridge team, which includes Dr. Nita Forouhi from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, also used data from a study that involved over 25,000 men and women from Norfolk, England.</p>
<p>The researchers then compared the food and drink habits of 753 people who developed type 2 diabetes over an 11-year stretch with 3,502 randomly selected study participants.</p>
<p>The study, which was published in Diabetologia, concluded that overall, milk and cheese intake were not associated with diabetes risk. Consequently, participants who consumed the most low-fat fermented dairy products, including yogurt, cottage cheese, and fromage frais had a 24 percent less chance of developing type 2 diabetes over the course of the 11-year study.</p>
<p>Researchers did not find any connection between diabetes risk and those who consumed milk or regular cheese. Although low-fat fermented dairy products were associated with a 24 percent less chance of type 2 diabetes, the risk was lowered to 28 percent when low-fat yogurt was consumed by itself.</p>
<p>While this is good news, lead researcher Dr. Nita Forouhi cautions that the study does not prove exact cause and effect. In addition, the National Health Services notes that although the data was collected from food and drink diaries that the subjects wrote in daily, as opposed to questionnaires that might not be as accurate, the diaries were only used for a seven day period. This abbreviated amount of time makes it more difficult to accurately assess one’s dairy intake. Another concern is that a participant’s diet could have changed over the course of the study.</p>
<p>Although the exact link between low-fat yogurt and a lowered risk of developing type 2 diabetes remains unclear, it is evident that yogurt offers additional health benefits. Forouhi explains that yogurt contains bone-building essentials such as calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and fatty acids, all of which have proven health benefits.</p>
<p>Other studies over the last few years have demonstrated that non- and low-fat yogurt can assist with weight loss while helping to build immunity.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Yogurt lowers risk of developing adult-onset diabetes. | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/02/10/yogurt-lowers-risk-of-developing-adult-onset-diabetes/ | 2014-02-10 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>By Edward Jay Epstein</p>
<p>Knopf. 350 pp. $27.95</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A catastrophic data breach. Russian complicity. Blundering institutions. Distrust of government. Reading Edward Jay Epstein’s gripping and devastatingly even-handed account of Edward Snowden, “How America Lost Its Secrets,” provides a Faulknerian reminder, during these days ringing with the same themes, that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”</p>
<p>Epstein’s revelations hit hard and don’t stop. Snowden could not have acted alone, since he didn’t have access to the secret compartments from which he took the most sensitive documents. Vladimir Putin personally authorized Snowden’s exfiltration from Hong Kong to Moscow. Snowden turned over to journalists only 58,000 of the 1.7 million documents he “touched,” the vast bulk of which had nothing to do with domestic surveillance but rather covered America’s overseas spy network, including its most sensitive sources and methods.</p>
<p>Epstein struggles to paint a factual portrait of Snowden without it feeling like an ad hominem attack: high school dropout, described by a classmate as having a high-pitched voice, liking the Magic card game, playing fantasy video games, owning two cats and using the online moniker Wolfking Awesomefox. Snowden washed out of Army training in 2004, worked briefly as a security guard at the University of Maryland and then got a job as, of all things, a CIA telecommunications support officer. Two years later, he received an unfavorable evaluation from his superior and was forced to resign. He then went to work for Dell as a National Security Agency contractor in 2009. As a system administrator, he had both the privileges to access vast amounts of data and the mandate to transfer it to backup servers – the perfect cover for a whistleblower or a spy.</p>
<p>On June 9, 2013, a video of Snowden was posted on the website of the Guardian. Shot in a Hong Kong hotel room, the disclosure begins with “My name is Ed Snowden,” and goes on to detail how the NSA was spying on U.S. citizens. Snowden comes across as calm, compelling and articulate. Overnight, he became a global celebrity and, to much of the world (including many Americans), the lead standard-bearer for data privacy and personal freedom in the digital age.</p>
<p>Most of the public debate since that summer has been over whether Snowden is a hero or a traitor, a whistleblower or a spy. Epstein’s answer is both – but more spy than whistleblower. And the case he builds, especially in light of disclosures since the U.S. election in November, is damning.</p>
<p>Since 9/11, the United States has changed in so many ways that it is already hard to remember the world where we could carry water bottles through airport security and where small-town police departments didn’t look like armored cavalry units. But changes like these are only the visible tip of a much bigger, and largely digital, iceberg. In some ways, Snowden’s disclosures of NSA surveillance, including a warrant issued under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act ordering Verizon to turn over all its billing records for 90 days to the NSA, and details of an Internet-monitoring program code-named PRISM, were beneficial. As Epstein writes, the disclosures “accomplished a salutary service in alerting both the public and government to the potential danger of a surveillance leviathan” and “revealed a bureaucratic mission creep that badly needed to be brought under closer oversight by Congress.”</p>
<p>What Snowden exposed, however, wasn’t a rogue operation. It was a series of programs authorized by presidents of both parties and Congress, and approved by no fewer than 15 federal judges. Epstein cites the current NSA director, Adm.Mike Rogers, and numerous others, including former NSA directors Mike McConnell, Michael Hayden and Keith Alexander, and former CIA acting director Michael Morell, laying out the crippling effects of Snowden’s revelations: “lost capability,” “impact on our ability to do our mission for the next twenty to thirty years,” “sources dried up; tactics were changed.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, concluded, “I think it’s an act of treason.”</p>
<p>The real scoundrel in Epstein’s telling is neither Snowden nor the security leviathan he checked; it’s the muscle-bound bureaucracy of the government and its contractors that allowed this breach to happen in the first place.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The 9/11 Commission concluded that one reason U.S. intelligence agencies failed to “connect the dots” before the 2001 attack was the existence of security-inspired “stove-piping” between, and within, the agencies. Much of that was stripped away in the following years, perhaps improving coordination, but with the unintended consequence of magnifying the risk of any particular breach, whether by a foreign spy or a disgruntled insider.</p>
<p>Whatever his ultimate motives, that Snowden maintained access to government secrets as long as he did was a colossal failure of the system. Five months after being forced out of the CIA, he was working on sensitive systems inside the NSA, first as an employee of Dell and later of Booz Allen Hamilton. Epstein reports that Snowden was able to keep his security clearance because the CIA had instituted a policy several years earlier that allowed voluntarily departing officers to maintain their clearances for two years after leaving. The grace period was intended to make it easier for them to find jobs among defense and intelligence contractors. When his CIA clearance finally expired in February 2011, Snowden applied – successfully – to renew it. Since 1996, the background investigations required to obtain a clearance had been outsourced to a private firm compensated according to the number of investigations it completed. The picture that emerges is of a self-dealing bureaucracy and a web of private contractors performing core government functions, more akin to Blackwater employees carrying guns and pulling triggers than to contract employees dishing out grits in a mess hall.</p>
<p>But the bigger problem is more subtle.</p>
<p>Epstein points out a culture clash that will be central to this era of national security policy: libertarian hackers in one corner, animated by a belief that information will be free; privacy advocates in another, convinced that privacy and security are zero-sum; and the national security establishment in a third, united by a conviction that some information is so important that it must remain secret (and that secrecy is even possible). The differences in perspective between Washington and Silicon Valley were neatly encapsulated in the recent, bruising debate over encryption technology. The wonks see the world in normative terms: We don’t want terrorists to have easy access to encrypted communications, so the government should regulate or outlaw the technology. The geeks, on the other hand, see the world in positive terms: Encryption technology is possible, and therefore people will use it, so the government better learn to live in that world.</p>
<p>The challenge arises where these worlds intersect – at the nexus of technology, security, privacy and civil liberties where the NSA operates. Will the government, with its salary caps and background checks, be able to compete for the best talent in fields like cybersecurity? And even if it succeeds in hiring and retaining skilled technical talent, can it coexist with a culture of secrecy? Morell makes the point that the NSA had moved in the direction of fostering a culture of openness, reflecting the talent pool from whence its young civilians came: “The idea was to spread knowledge and learn from the successes of others, but it created enormous security vulnerability.”</p>
<p>In this winter of rattled confidence in government, Epstein’s welcome reappraisal of the most destructive data breach in the history of U.S. intelligence brings nothing to mind so much as the Roman poet Juvenal’s timeless question: “Who will guard the guards themselves?”</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Fick is chief executive of the cybersecurity software company Endgame and a Marine Corps veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He is the author of “One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer.”</p> | Book World: Whistleblower or spy? Edward Snowden could be both. | false | https://abqjournal.com/933763/book-world-whistleblower-or-spy-edward-snowden-could-be-both.html | 2017-01-23 | 2 |
<p>It was an Olympic Games that had its share of well-publicized problems.&#160;It seems like the international media liked to give Vancouver a hard time over things it couldn’t control, like the weather. And things it could, like the public transportation.</p>
<p>I’m not sure there has ever been a Winter Olympics where spectators were wearing shorts to watch ice hockey and curling. It was an unseasonably warm winter that looked a lot more like spring. But when the rain stopped bucketing down no-one cared. Vancouver shone like a precious gem when the sun came out. Visitors and locals enjoyed the best of both worlds. The Winter Olympics were happening and the cherry blossoms were blooming.</p>
<p>Celebrate!</p>
<p>But that leads me too another complaint I heard a lot. Canucks didn’t know HOW to celebrate. As a nation, they contended, the Canadians are too reserved and understated. They chided us for not reacting with enough enthusiasm when <a href="http://olympic.ca/team-canada/alexandre-bilodeau/" type="external">Alex Bilodeau</a> won Canada’s first gold medal on home soil.</p>
<p>Au contraire mes amis&#160; - a little shout out there for those <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/lack-of-french-at-vancouver-games-insensitive-report-1.954795" type="external">who complained that there wasn’t enough French spoken at the opening ceremonies</a>.</p>
<p>There was mad nationalism going on in Vancouver.</p>
<p>The streets were a sea of red and white jerseys. If you didn’t have a pair of those adorable red mittens you couldn’t leave your house. And everyone had the standard issue maple leaf temporary tattoo on their cheeks.</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to attend the USA-Canada women’s hockey gold medal game. The Canadian fans were wrapped in flags, carrying signs, and shouting out cheers for the home team.</p>
<p>And the crowd was on its feet for the final minutes of the game as Canada beat Team USA, 2-0.</p>
<p>And then came the medal ceremony.&#160;The Canadian crowd cheered loudly for the women from Finland, who were ecstatic over their Bronze medal result. And then came the American women’s team, visibly upset by their loss.</p>
<p>The Canadian crowd started chanting.&#160;First it was a handful of voices – and then it was thousands. Pretty soon, the entire arena&#160;was filled with the deafening sound of Canadian fans chanting:</p>
<p>U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!</p>
<p>It was a nice reminder of what the Olympics are really about. It’s not about snow, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/sports/olympics/10olysnow.html?_r=0" type="external">or lack of it</a>. And it’s not about <a href="http://ownthepodium.org/" type="external">Owning the Podium</a>.</p>
<p>And maybe that’s what makes Canadians seem like we lack that fighting, nationalistic fervor.&#160;</p>
<p>Canadians cheer for everyone.</p>
<p>We cheer the effort as much as the result.</p>
<p>We like our flag plenty, but we like yours too.</p> | O Canada - Canadian hockey fans cheer on Team USA | false | https://pri.org/stories/2010-03-01/o-canada-canadian-hockey-fans-cheer-team-usa | 2010-03-01 | 3 |
<p>The real conspiracy surrounding Jesus is not the cover-up of his marriage to Mary Magdalene, but his theological transformation into the “bridegroom” of the Christian Church (Mark 2: 18-22). Jesus was a Jew not a Christian. He was not about dying so that believers everywhere could inherit eternal life, but about liberating the Jews in his land from Roman occupation. His crucifixion was not about resurrecting the dead but about reviving the living. His sacrifice was not about heaven or hell for all people in the future, but about release and renewal for the Jewish people in this life. The great conspiracy is the early Christian Church turning his model of liberation from an oppressive state into one of accommodation to the state.</p>
<p>It is safer today, as in the past, to believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world than to join in seeking to rid the world of political, corporate and military sins that deny other people their birthright of freedom and fulfillment. Safer because many Christian denominations have allowed themselves to be integrated into and “blessed” and co-opted by the ruling status quo. The real deception of traditional Christianity is its reinterpretation of salvation as an individual matter, apart from institutionalized political and economic realities that greatly determine who, in the gospel words of Jesus, may actually “have life, and have it in its fullest.” (John 10:10)</p>
<p>Ironically, Jesus himself seems to be the greatest threat to Christian Churches: his risky model of intervention-of speaking truth to power structures and acting it out-on behalf of oppressed persons. This risk appears to partly underlie institutionalized Christianity’s most deceptive conspiracy: that of immortalizing Jesus in order to immobilize his dangerous model of liberation. The threat his cross poses as a model is removed by turning it into a monument and worshipping it. Vicarious identification with his struggle may be substituted for involvement in similar, hazardous ethical struggles today. Here the power is in the prayer. The stature is in the statue. The right is in the rite.</p>
<p>The personal appeal of saving one’s own soul for all eternity replaces the more caring and challenging commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself. A gospel of personal redemption may also protect one from seeing how one’s own institutionalized blessings may be another’s curse-gained at another’s expense.</p>
<p>A further risk for one’s neighbor is that a one true and only saviour of the world appeals to insecure persons. Their need for absolute certainty and rightness, and intolerance of ambiguity, differences and complexity, invite and rationalize power over and domination of others. And another conspiracy is born: oppressing one’s neighbor in the name of the very person whose mission was to set people free. Such conspiracies depend on rewriting history.</p>
<p>The early Christians’ need to transcend the reality of the cross evidently led them to bury history. The historical reality was that the Jews suffered brutal oppression under Roman occupation, and that Jesus was merely one of many messianic prophets crucified Roman-style for political sedition. He was not about dying for the sins of the world so that believers could inherit eternal life, but about seeking to liberate the Jewish people from the sins of the Roman Empire-which had violated their national sovereignty, occupied their country, and crucified thousands of Jewish “insurgents” and bystanders. Belief in the Messiah was grounded not in heaven but on earth: national sovereignty, freedom and peace.</p>
<p>Jesus reportedly saw his mission as having a key political dimension. He was “anointed . . . to preach good news to the poor . . . [and] to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18) As New Testament historian Paula Fredriksen writes in From Jesus to Christ, Jesus shared a first century Jewish consensus “on what was religiously important: the people, the Land, Jerusalem, the Temple, and Torah. . . . The political situation was of religious concern because,” as Fredriksen has “repeatedly noted, Judaism did not draw a distinction between the two spheres: an idolatrous occupying force posed a religious problem.” (Second Edition, page 93, Yale University Press)</p>
<p>The occupying power of Rome, in turn, saw Jesus as a political problem, and swiftly crucified him on a cross after his “triumphant” messianic-like entry into Jerusalem at Passover. A foreboding inscription also was posted above his head: “This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38). Jesus’ mission was to empower people not gain power over them-another ethical aspect of his model turned upside down through the ages by evangelistic Christian kingdom builders. They and their descendents have claimed to heed the call of a resurrected Christ: a risen Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28: 16-20) Never mind that The Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was a Christological formulation of the early Christian Church created long after Jesus and his disciples had lived.</p>
<p>The early Christians seemed to stand history on its head in order to put a resurrected Jesus on his feet-and give him legs. They transported him from a political to a theological realm in order to survive and flourish in the Roman world.</p>
<p>The Jews believed in a living not a resurrected messiah. The real messiah would deliver them from Roman domination and restore their national sovereignty and freedom. Thus for most Jews, any belief in Jesus as the messiah faded as their oppression continued in the years following his crucifixion. Their ongoing struggle against Roman occupation culminated in a violent insurrection between 61-73, which saw Rome destroy Jerusalem, murder over a million Jews, and made tens of thousands of them slaves and captives. (Christians and Anti-Semitism: A Calendar of Jewish Persecution)</p>
<p>The early followers of Jesus found it safer to dissociate themselves from the Roman-despised and ­persecuted Jews. Safer to reinterpret Jesus’ messiahship in theological and evangelical rather than political and institutional terms. Safer to appeal to the Gentiles because the survival of the early followers lay in spreading a Christian gospel to the Romans. The gospel of a resurrected Messiah and saviour of the world. Whose miraculous resurrection proves, rather than negates, his being the Messiah and also the only Son of God. Therefore, his followers hold the one true religion in the palm of their faith.</p>
<p>The conversion of Jesus from Jew to Christian is seen in his dissociation from Judaism and accommodating appeal to the Romans. This distortion of historical reality involves the shifting of blame for Jesus’ crucifixion from Romans to Jews. The anti-Semitism in the New Testament is seen in reputedly cruel Roman prefect Pontius Pilate agonizingly sympathetic to a would-be liberator of Jews from Roman domination; in Pilate dramatically washing his hands of responsibility for Jesus’ death, even though he alone had the power of life and death over Jesus. (John 19:10)</p>
<p>The distortion of historical reality is also seen in Jews being set up as “Christ killers.” A “whole battalion-backed, yet uneasy, Pilate giving in to the “will” of subjugated, powerless priests, elders of the people, and other Jews who repeatedly cried out, “Crucify him!” (Mark 15: 12-16) Portraying the Roman Empire in such a favorable light in New Testament books written 50 to 100 years after the fact, may have advanced the evangelizing of Romans by the early followers of Jesus, but it cast a horrible curse on the Jewish people by putting into the mouths of their oppressed descendents, “His [Jesus’] blood be on us and on our children.” (Matthew 27:25)</p>
<p>Around 300 years later the apparent conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine led Christianity to not only be recognized, but favored by the state. Finally, the persecution and martyrdom of Christians ended. But not so that of Jews. Their continuing oppression is suggested in Constantine’s support for separating the observance of Easter from the date of the Jewish Passover. Calling the Jews “utterly depraved” and “murderers of our Lord,” he also wrote, “It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. . . . let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way. (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, Vol. III Ch.XVIII [1]) (Constantine 1 (emperor)-Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)</p>
<p>“We have received from our Saviour a different way?” From Jewish liberator to Christian Saviour. The oppressed Christians were legitimized and accepted by the state, and, in Jesus’ name, joined the state in oppressing the very descendents of those he sought to liberate from the state. A similar conspiracy operates in the present.</p>
<p>The counterpart today is readily seen in the self-professed “Christian” who manipulated his way into the White House. President Bush has used religion to disguise and justify America’s criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq. “Freedom is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to every man and woman in the world,” he told cheering Republican delegates at their 2004 national convention. (The New York Times, Sept. 3, 2004)</p>
<p>The Bush administration’s pre-emptive war against Iraq is not about “God” and “freedom” but about lies: Iraq’s threatening mushroom cloud-like weapons of mass destruction that did not exist; Saddam Hussein’s ties to the horrible 9/11 attacks against America that did not exist; “fighting the terrorists in Iraq so that we do not have to fight them here”-so-called “terrorists” who did not exist but do now because of the Bush administration’s military aggression against Iraq..</p>
<p>The Bush administration is not about spreading “freedom” but American imperialism, not about “God” “anointing the Iraqi people with “the oil of gladness” (Hebrews 1:96), but about gaining control of the oil under the soil of Iraq, not about rebuilding Iraq but about refilling the coffers of administration friendly Halliburton types. The great conspiracy against the American people is the Bush administration reinterpreting its war crimes against the Iraqi people as an act of “God.”</p>
<p>The conspiracy underlying the Bush administration’s criminal war against and occupation of Iraq has reached an even more deceptive level. Now unraveling is the cover-up of last November 19’s deliberate killing of 24 Iraqi men, women and children civilians in Haditha by US Marines. The apparent Haditha massacre is evidently one of a number of atrocities committed against Iraqi civilians by US troops. These growing horrible disclosures apparently led Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal el-Maliki to “lash out at the American military” in reaction, “denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians.” He was quoted as saying the “violence against civilians has become a ‘daily phenomenon’ by many troops in the American-led coalition who do not respect the Iraqi people.'” (The New York Times, June 2, 2006) The fact that el-Maliki’s government is dependent upon United States military for its existence suggests the severity with which he perceives the “daily phenomenon” of violence committed by American troops against Iraqi civilians</p>
<p>The Bush administration’s response to the perceived ” ‘daily’ attacks against [Iraqi] civilians” (Ibid) contains its own deceptive irony. The response became headline news: “US orders ethics training for all its troops in Iraq”. The “ethics training” consists of “troops be[ing] taught about military values, Iraqi cultural expectations, and disciplined professional conduct,” which includes “the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.” (The Boston Globe, June 2, 2006)</p>
<p>If it were about ethics, US troops would not be in Iraq in the first place. This conspiratorial masquerade is not meant to win the minds and hearts of the Iraqi people, but to bolster the flagging support of the American people for a criminal war and occupation that is unraveling. “Ethics training” or window dressing for a corrupt-and corrupting-conspiracy?</p>
<p>The real conspiracy is not the cover-up of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene but his marriage to the Christian Church-and Christian Churches marriages to the state. It is the corrupting “bond” between church and state that needs to be decoded.</p>
<p>Many Christian clergy often tend not to rock the boat, by speaking truth to power, fearing their own ship won’t come in. In institutionalized Christianity, clergy usually get ahead by getting along-which often means going along. Hierarchical structures determine their advancements and thus tend to keep their conscience. You can’t have a hierarchy without a lowerarchy.</p>
<p>Similarly, many bishops and other such church executives often tend not to rock the boat, by speaking truth to power, fearing constituents will abandon ship-and not merely Republican church members. The primary emphasis is on evangelism not ethics, on making all people “disciples of Jesus Christ” not doing justice for all people. It is the politics of religion that often keeps religion out of politics-out of risky political issues.</p>
<p>The apparent conspiracy here is turning a prophet into a profit. In other words, a primary characteristic of the successful Christian church leader appears to be the ability to maintain and enhance the institution as it is. Here again the gravest threat to institutionalized Christianity is believed to be Jesus himself-his model of setting the oppressed free rather than evangelizing and oppressing them in his name-or in the name of “freedom.”</p>
<p>There are exceptions. One is Jim Winkler, head of United Methodism’s General Board of Church and Society, the social action agency of The Church. He recently called on Congress to impeach President Bush, also a United Methodist, for initiating an “illegal war of aggression” against Iraq “based on lies,” and contrary to The Church’s Social Principles that declare, “War is incompatible with the teaching and example of Christ.”</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Mark Tooley, director of the United Methodist Committee at the Institute of Religion and Democracy, reportedly said Jim Winkler was a front for the “Religious Left,” and would make a better “spokesman for a left-wing political action organization like MoveOn.org,” as he “does not represent the mainstream opinion in the denomination for which he purports to speak.” (“Blow-back for Methodist attack on Bush,” UPI Religion and Spirituality Forum, June 1, 2006) Tooley himself seems to presume to represent the denomination’s “mainstream opinion.” Jesus’ model of liberation is not about “left” and “right” but right and wrong.</p>
<p>It is time for the bishops of The United Methodist Church especially to follow Jim Winkler’s example and speak truth to power more forcefully. Last November, 95 of the bishops signed a “Statement of Conscience” in which they “repent[ed] of complicity in what we believe to be an unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.” They lamented “being silent in the face of the United States Administration’s rush toward military action based on misleading information.” They confessed “preoccupation with institutional enhancement [italics added] and limited agendas while American men and women are sent to Iraq to kill and be killed, while thousands of Iraqi people needlessly suffer and die.” And their concluding commitment was to “object with boldness when governing powers offer solutions of war that conflict with the gospel message of self-emptying love.”</p>
<p>The latest “solution” of the “governing powers” is to offer “ethics training” for troops, whose very invasion and occupying presence in Iraq are violations of international law-and that of any “gospel message of self-emptying love.” It is time for the 95 United Methodist bishops to present a resolution to their own Council of Bishops, calling for the censure of their two most prestigious and criminal church members: President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The grounds for their censure are contained in the 95 bishops’ own “Statement of Conscience.”</p>
<p>Jesus is recorded as teaching that eternal life is not something one inherits but does. It is not primarily about belief but about behavior, just as the truth is reflected in what one does. When a lawyer tested him by asking, “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?,” Jesus confirmed that the two greatest commandments were the way: love of one’s god and one’s neighbor as oneself. “Do this [italics added], and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-28)</p>
<p>Jesus did not say which neighbor to love. Nor specify the neighbor’s race, religion, nationality or sexual orientation. Which evidently led the lawyer to test Jesus further by asking, “And who is my neighbor?” And Jesus said any person robbed of life and in need of a Good Samaritan. And there were no proselytizing strings attached. (Luke 10:29-37)</p>
<p>Religion is about seeing through and overcoming conspiracies. It is about setting people free, not imposing sectarian or political beliefs on them. It is about empowering people, not gaining power over them. It is about honoring people in calling them by their own names, and experiencing their reality not interpreting it. It is about loving one’s neighbor as oneself. And one’s neighbor is anyone-anywhere. Religion is not worshiping what the prophets did but doing what the prophets worshiped.</p>
<p>Rev. WILLIAM E. ALBERTS, Ph.D. is a hospital chaplain. Both a Unitarian Universalist and a United Methodist minister, he has written research reports, essays and articles on racism, war, politics and religion. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Decoding the Coders of Christ | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/06/14/decoding-the-coders-of-christ/ | 2006-06-14 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Sir James Cotton, 19 (MDC)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man was arrested after police say he shot and injured a man at the 18-and-over Lotus Nightclub in Downtown Albuquerque early Friday morning around the time bars let out for the night.</p>
<p>The suspect, whom police identified as Sir Joseph Cotton but who was also identified as Sir James Cotton, 19, in jail records, is facing multiple charges, including aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.</p>
<p>Officers were called to the shooting at Lotus around 1:45 a.m. and found a man had been shot in the leg. The victim told officers what the suspect looked like, and a DWI officer spotted Cotton a couple blocks away.</p>
<p>He was arrested and officers discovered that the gun he allegedly used in the shooting was stolen.</p>
<p>The victim apparently survived the shooting, though police didn’t elaborate on his condition.</p>
<p>Cotton was taken to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing, and was later booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on charges of tampering with evidence and receiving or transferring a stolen firearm, along with the aggravated battery charge.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The shooting comes after Mayor Richard Berry announced a plan last week to increase police presence Downtown due to what area businesses have complained is rampant crime.</p>
<p>On Oct. 14, 2014, 23-year-old Kyle Ntiforo was gunned down in an alleyway outside Lotus Nightclub after getting into a fight inside. Brothers Tim and Tory Burdex was arrested in the killing in January 2016. Tory Burdex was acquitted by a jury earlier this year, and the charges against Tim Burdex were dropped late last year, according to online court records.</p>
<p>The next summer, in June 2015, a man at Lotus allegedly shot another man who was staring at him. The victim survived.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Man arrested after nightclub shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/1033151/man-shot-injured-at-downtown-lotus-nightclub.html | 2017-07-14 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Warnings that North Korea and Iran have plans to take out parts of the U.S. electric grid through a cyber-attack or atmospheric nuclear blast has Department of Defence worried. In response, the Pentagon is taking steps to protect both the nation's communications and power lifeline.</p>
<p />
<p>BAE Systems have been charged with the responsibility of mapping a system that can detect a cyber-attack by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. &#160;The system will also gin up an alternative communications network for military and civilian use if the grid is fried.</p>
<p />
<p>Several warning shots have been shot by the former CIA Director James Woolsey who warned that the grid is extremely vulnerable. The Pentagon and some states have taken the warning seriously. The former EMP commission chief of staff Peter Vincent Pry and Woolsey have pointed a finger at North Korea, which is now threatening the U.S.</p>
<p />
<p>As DARPA's focuses on thwarting a cyber-attack, Pry and Woolsey have also warned that North Korea or Iran could attack the grid with an atmospheric nuclear explosion over the East Coast that will disable the grid and that could end up leading to the death of 90 percent of those in the East.</p>
<p />
<p>The plan presented in Defense Systems by DARPA has several elements that react to attack. The first response is to include ways to sense an imminent attack that would trigger protections. However, if it is damaged, it would have an alternative way for communications killed in the attack to continue in a backup system. That would ensure that financial and military systems continue operating. The system is expected to be ready by 2020.</p>
<p />
<p>DARPA released a statement saying that it is specifically interested in early warning of impending attacks, situation awareness, network isolation and threat characterization in response to a widespread and persistent cyber-attack on the power grid and its dependent systems.</p>
<p />
<p>The relevant technologies that ought to be taken into consideration include anomaly detection, planning and automated reasoning, mapping of conventional and industrial control systems networks, ad hoc network formation, analysis of industrial control systems protocols, and rapid forensic characterization of cyber threats in industrial control system devices.</p>
<p />
<p>The system is known as Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems. One of the BAE officials said that the purpose of the program is to provide a technology that quickly isolates both the enterprise IP network and the power infrastructure networks to disrupt malicious attacks imminent from countries such as Iran and North Korea.</p>
<p />
<p>SOURCE: <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/getting-ready-pentagon-to-protect-electric-grid-from-massive-attack/article/2620280" type="external">washingtonexaminer.com/getting-ready-pentagon-to-protect-electric-grid-from-massive-attack/article/2620280</a></p> | Pentagon To Protect Electric Grid From Cyber-Attack Or Atmospheric Nuclear Blast | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/2275-Pentagon-To-Protect-Electric-Grid-From-Cyber-Attack-Or-Atmospheric-Nuclear-Blast | 2017-04-15 | 0 |
<p>Harvard University’s administration has mandated “diversity courses” for its English-concentration students, ostensibly in an attempt to counter alleged oppression endured by varying categories of writers.</p>
<p>The new curriculum requirements, said the university's English Department chair James Simpson, would enlighten students about authors who have been “ <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/23/english-diversity-proposal-approved/" type="external">marginalized for historical reasons</a> [by] <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/2/10/english-diversity-proposal/" type="external">racism, patriarchy, and heteronormativity</a>.”</p>
<p>Simpson described the new curriculum mandate as an “opportunity” to showcase “ethnic literature” and create courses featuring “predominately women authors.”</p>
<p>The impetus for the new curriculum was <a href="http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8979" type="external">reportedly</a> a “very reflective” letter from a student, in which lamentations were expressed over supposed insufficient representation of “racial minorities and women” in the university's English department’s curriculum.</p>
<p>The Harvard Crimson framed the new curriculum mandate as serving the unqualified interest of “diversity.” In December 2015, Harvard Business School’s dean <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/12/11/khurana-diversity-town-hall/" type="external">promised to allocate funding</a> for mentorship programs to connect students and “alumni of color.”</p>
<p>In November of last year, the university commissioned <a href="http://diversity.college.harvard.edu/files/collegediversity/files/diversity_and_inclusion_working_group_final_report_2.pdf" type="external">a report</a> on “diversity and inclusion” from a “working group,” ostensibly examining its treatment of “students of color,” “sexual minorities,” and persons of varying “gender identity and expression.”</p>
<p>The new curriculum will begin in 2020.</p>
<p>H/T Toni Airaksinen at <a href="http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8979" type="external">Campus Reform</a></p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Harvard: English Majors Must Study Non-White Writers | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14917/harvard-english-majors-must-study-non-white-robert-kraychik | 2017-03-29 | 0 |
<p><a href="https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/rohingya-crisis-dents-myanmar-hopes-of-western-investment-boom-531702" type="external">Rohingya crisis dents Myanmar hopes of Western investment boom</a>Reuters <a href="https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news" type="external">Stock Markets</a></p>
<p>By Yimou Lee and Marius Zaharia YANGON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – When officials from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon toured six European countries in June, they were hoping to drum up investment in transport, energy and education. Instead, they were bombarded with questions about the country’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have …</p> | Fred Smith: Technology And Automation Will Make Us More Productive | 100 Seconds of Advice | Forbes | false | https://newsline.com/fred-smith-technology-and-automation-will-make-us-more-productive-100-seconds-of-advice-forbes/ | 2017-09-21 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>For example, at Albuquerque High School, an audit found several apparent violations of either state law or Albuquerque Public Schools policy.</p>
<p>Former activities director Yvette Jaramillo Barnwell charged students $20 each as an "activity fee." No other high school has such a fee. Usually, schools raise activity funds for special purposes, such as trips or uniforms, through fundraisers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In conclusion, auditors said Barnwell "did not always follow APS policies and procedures regarding the Student Activity Fund Account. Receipted funds could not be traced to bank deposits. Documentation was missing. Fundraising profits were unacceptable. Special fundraisers were not advertised. Funds generated by the entire student body were used to send eleven people to Washington, D.C. The Field Trip Request Form contained incorrect information. The Student Senate account should be a separate fund account and not processed through the Student Activity Fund account."</p>
<p>Eddie Soto, the APS associate superintendent for secondary education, told KRQE-TV on Thursday that Barnwell "may have broken the law." Soto was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment, but a district spokesman said Barnwell has left APS and the case is considered closed.</p>
<p>The audits are conducted on a rotating schedule, with each school audited every three years. In the most recent round, 58 schools were found wanting. Most of the sanctioned practices were judged "marginal" but, at 19 schools, some were found to be "unacceptable." Most errors turned up in four categories: Revenues and Receipts, Expenditures, Transfers and Fund Balances, and Financial Reporting.</p>
<p>Kathy Korte, chair of the APS school board's Audit Committee, said the district needs to re-examine certain policy areas, and take a close look at procedures and forms. For example, she said, the request form used districtwide for travel or taking trips needs to be revamped to require more information. And adults in charge of activities need to know they will be held responsible for financial record-keeping.</p>
<p>"We like extracurricular activities and the last thing we want to do is hurt the kids," Korte said. "But we need to hone up on processes we already have in place and add a few tweaks."</p>
<p>In another case, a $4 check - written on the School account to refund a parent who had paid for a lost library book that was later found - was later cashed for $1,500 at a Bank of America branch. The altered check was payable to a man who had worked at a CPA firm and is now a staff accountant at the University of New Mexico, according to the audit report.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>This particular audit was initiated when a Mitchell bookkeeper notified the APS Internal Audit Department about the check. The case is still under investigation. Apparently, the individual who cashed the check later tried to cash a second check at a Wal-Mart store.</p>
<p>According to the audit report, Bank of America has not been fully cooperative in the investigation, which is being conducted jointly by the Albuquerque Police Department and APS police.</p>
<p>Another case involved the La Cueva High School debate team. An audit was launched after a parent called the school principal and said American Airlines had notified him that $1,000 was owed for a trip to Massachusetts. The calls came after a debate team coach took 10 students on a trip to Harvard University that La Cueva officials knew nothing about.</p>
<p>The parent produced a cancelled check proving the money had already been paid. The coach, 20-year-old Taylor Bui, is now a student at UNM. He agreed with investigators that he had not followed all the applicable rules. The school principal has been advised to improve training for new coaches and other employees, and new procedures are being implemented.</p>
<p />
<p /> | School audits find apparent violations of law, policy | false | https://abqjournal.com/353989/school-audits-find-apparent-violations-of-law-policy.html | 2 |
|
<p>GUADALAJARA, Mexico - Sandra Avila Beltran, known in Mexico as "The Queen of the Pacific," has been handed to the United States where she will face charges of trafficking cocaine, <a href="http://noticierostelevisa.esmas.com/nacional/485444/entrega-mexico-extradicion-reina-del-pacifico-/" type="external">Mexican news agency Notimex reported today.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_?vila_Beltr?n" type="external">Avila Beltran</a> is well known for her suspected involvement in the Mexican drug trade.</p>
<p>She earned her nickname for allegedly carving out smuggling routes along Mexico's Pacific Coast into California.</p>
<p>Avila Beltran was arrested in Mexico in 2007 and convicted on money laundering charges. The court told prosecutors they had not provided enough evidence to convict her of drug trafficking.</p>
<p>In June, Avila Beltran lost a more than two-year battle against a US extradition request. She had argued she would be tried for the same crimes twice, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-extradites-drug-cartel-queen-united-states-222617874.html" type="external">Reuters reported.</a></p>
<p>In a 2009 interview that aired on "60 Minutes" and CNN, Avila denied the charges against her, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/09/world/americas/mexico-drug-queen-extradited/" type="external">CNN reported.</a></p>
<p>She instead blamed Mexican authorities for allowing drug trafficking to flourish.</p>
<p>"In Mexico there's a lot of corruption, a lot. Large shipments of drugs can come into the Mexican ports or airports without the authorities knowing about it. It's obvious and logical. The government has to be involved in everything that is corrupt," she said.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/120809/mexico-violence-14-bodies-found-van-san-luis-potosi-sta" type="external">Mexico violence: 14 bodies found in van in San Luis Potosi state</a> &#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }</p>
<p>#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }</p> | Mexico: Sandra Avila Beltran, 'Queen of the Pacific,' to face drug charges in US | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-10/mexico-sandra-avila-beltran-queen-pacific-face-drug-charges-us | 2012-08-10 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Labor Day - a day to honor workers and their contributions or a holiday that, to many of us, signifies a day off from work and the end of summer? In this case, maybe it does not matter much because celebrating workers and a day off from work coincide nicely. Honoring people with a mini vacation seems appropriate.</p>
<p>In the so-called olden days, Labor Day also signified the beginning of the school year although today's school year started several weeks ago. It was certainly a different world when parents and children never had to pay attention to school calendars because everyone knew when school began. It's much harder today to keep track of it all with different schools and different grade levels starting at different times. Obviously, though, the olden days are long gone.</p>
<p>APS - We don't know what is left to say about the leadership situation at Albuquerque Public Schools. Everything that has happened in the last few weeks opens the door for endless discussions. Which is most important - hiring practices, background checks, payouts, Board of Education conduct, children's safety, honesty, integrity? They are all important as is the basic unknown of what the whole truth is.</p>
<p>It would seem APS has an incredibly poor record when it comes to hiring superintendents. If it weren't so important, we would like to throw up our hands and forget it. But it is critical, extremely critical. Regardless of what we're told, this kind of trauma adversely affects the students and teachers. Chaos, gossip and uncertainty do not provide a stable work environment.</p>
<p>So, what's left to be said? Maybe it's time for APS to get its act together. Hire somebody good who cares about education, will set high standards, is honest, straight-forward and transparent. It shouldn't be that difficult to find a good superintendent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Giving back - Keeping track of all the West Side and Rio Rancho events that support various community projects and charities and raise funds for them is difficult these days because there are so many of them - and that is a testament to the people in our community. We'll only mention a couple of examples, but there are many more activities out there that are helping others.</p>
<p>Last week, a fundraiser was held in Rio Rancho to solicit contributions for a permanent memorial to honor our fallen heroes. We hope its success is only the beginning. Also, with the unveiling of the mural at A Park Above, we are reminded of the time, money and dedication that so many people are giving to this exciting project. Three cheers for the contributors.</p>
<p>First responders - We want to remind our local police and first responders how much we support them. This violence against police that is invading our national culture is abhorrent. We expect our communities to come together, tell our police how much we support them and to be prepared to literally fight for them if needed. They accepted the unknown dangers they face each day as part of their job description, but they did not sign up for people out to get them just because they are cops. It's up to us to say, "We will not tolerate this behavior or anyone who encourages it."</p>
<p>And, finally, we wish you a Happy Labor Day.</p>
<p /> | Labor Day a time to celebrate and reflect | false | https://abqjournal.com/639866/labor-day-a-time-to-celebrate-and-reflect.html | 2 |
|
<p>London, England</p>
<p>A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.</p>
<p>This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations.</p>
<p>It now appears that, far from improving the quality of life for Iraqi youngsters, the US-led military assault on Iraq has inexplicably doubled the number of children under five suffering from malnutrition. Under Saddam, about 4% of children under five were going hungry, whereas by the end of last year almost 8% were suffering.</p>
<p>These results are even more disheartening for those of us in the Department of Making Things Better for Children in the Middle East By Military Force, since the previous attempts by Britain and America to improve the lot of Iraqi children also proved disappointing. For example, the policy of applying the most draconian sanctions in living memory totally failed to improve conditions. After they were imposed in 1990, the number of children under five who died increased by a factor of six. By 1995 something like half a million Iraqi children were dead as a result of our efforts to help them.</p>
<p>A year later, Madeleine Albright, then the US ambassador to the United Nations, tried to put a brave face on it. When a TV interviewer remarked that more children had died in Iraq through sanctions than were killed in Hiroshima, Mrs Albright famously replied: “We think the price is worth it.”</p>
<p>But clearly George Bush didn’t. So he hit on the idea of bombing them instead. And not just bombing, but capturing and torturing their fathers, humiliating their mothers, shooting at them from road blocks – but none of it seems to do any good. Iraqi children simply refuse to be better nourished, healthier and less inclined to die. It is truly baffling.</p>
<p>And this is why we at the department are appealing to you – the general public – for ideas. If you can think of any other military techniques that we have so far failed to apply to the children of Iraq, please let us know as a matter of urgency. We assure you that, under our present leadership, there is no limit to the amount of money we are prepared to invest in a military solution to the problems of Iraqi children.</p>
<p>In the UK there may now be 3.6 million children living below the poverty line, and 12.9 million in the US, with no prospect of either government finding any cash to change that. But surely this is a price worth paying, if it means that George Bush and Tony Blair can make any amount of money available for bombs, shells and bullets to improve the lives of Iraqi kids. You know it makes sense.</p>
<p>TERRY JONES is a film director, actor and Python. He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">TERRY JONES’s War on the War on Terror</a> . Visit Jones’ blog at: <a href="http://www.terry-jones.net/" type="external">www.terry-jones.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Let Them Eat Bombs | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/04/13/let-them-eat-bombs/ | 2005-04-13 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>If there were a treatment for Alzheimer’s in 2020, the study found that people would have to wait a year and a half for access because of a shortage of specialists and equipment to diagnose and treat the disease.</p>
<p>An estimated 2.1 million people could develop dementia while waiting for treatment over the next two decades, researchers found.</p>
<p>The study by researchers from Rand Corp. identifies a secondary public health challenge: whether the health-care system is prepared to identify and treat millions of people – many of whom won’t yet be showing obvious signs of memory loss.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>There is no approved treatment to alter the relentless course of Alzheimer’s, and many experimental drugs have failed to slow or halt its progress.</p>
<p>But that is not the only challenge to fighting the disease, the study found.</p>
<p>An estimated 15 million Americans suffer from mild cognitive impairment that may be an early sign of Alzheimer’s. Once a treatment is available that can prevent or slow the disease, they will need to be screened.</p>
<p>“All of a sudden, the numbers explode,” said Soeren Mattke, a senior scientist at Rand who did the study. “There are really large numbers of patients, many of whom will not have signs of early-stage memory loss. We need to process them all, to find the ones that do have Alzheimer’s pathology – and that means moving a lot of patients through the health-care system.”</p>
<p>The researchers found shortages: not enough specialists who would be able to screen and diagnose the early stages of the disease, a lack of imaging scanners that would be needed to confirm the diagnosis, and insufficient infusion centers where patients would receive a drug by IV.</p>
<p>The study found the wait time would shrink over time – to a little over a month by 2030. But those bottlenecks in access matter when a disease is progressive, and the study highlights that the scientific challenge of developing a safe, effective drug is only the first step.</p>
<p>Access to a future Alzheimer’s drug will depend on insurers’ paying for it and patients’ being able to afford it.</p>
<p>The Rand report doesn’t assess the financial effects of an Alzheimer’s treatment on insurers, patients or Medicare, but it shows that even making the drug rapidly available to the right patients will strain the health-care infrastructure if today’s workforce and infrastructure trends continue.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For years, companies have been racing to develop treatments, only to slam into the stubborn and complex biology of the disease.</p>
<p>Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced this week a $50 million investment in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a global investment fund working to identify novel treatment targets.</p>
<p>Repeated high-profile Alzheimer’s drug failures have made one thing increasingly clear: Once people are in the grip of dementia, it’s too late. Any successful treatment probably will need to be given when the disease is nascent – before it has significantly eroded people’s memories and personalities.</p>
<p>But that will make deploying a drug more challenging, since it won’t simply be given to people who are clearly ill.</p>
<p>The biggest concern Mattke discovered was a lack of specialists qualified to screen, diagnose and treat patients.</p>
<p>Data presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference this summer revealed that 20 states had provider “deserts” where they were projected to lack sufficient neurologists to treat patients with dementia. The worst-equipped states for the projected burden of dementia in 2025 were Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina and Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Other barriers – such as insufficient imaging scanners to help diagnose the disease and not enough infusion centers to deliver an IV drug to people – may be easier to rapidly change, because those issues will require investment but not years of training.</p>
<p>“When we have that therapy – whether it’s 2020 or 2022 or 2025 – when we have that therapy, what are the other pieces of the puzzle that need be in place so we’re helping as many people as possible as soon as possible?” asked Heather Snyder, senior director of medical and scientific operations at the Alzheimer’s Association.</p> | Study: U.S. unequipped for an Alzheimer’s crisis | false | https://abqjournal.com/1092896/study-us-unequipped-for-an-alzheimers-crisis.html | 2017-11-14 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Angry Trump, market highs and taxes; here’s what’s On Our Radar today:</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Trump’s immigration ban hit a snag when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted unanimously to uphold the suspension of his executive order. The fights not over, when Trump ironically responded to the court’s decision (in all caps) with the below tweet:</p>
<p>SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!</p>
<p>The Supreme Court, still missing one core judge, could hear the case.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The market hit yet another record high yesterday, closing at 20,172 with morning futures up over 118 points. So what pushed investors on Wall Street? Trump’s tax talk; “"Lowering the overall tax burden on American business is big league,” Trump said in a meeting with aviation execs.</p>
<p>Tune in to Varney and Co at 9am ET for the opening bell and moves.</p>
<p>Speaking of taxes, Sean Spicer, the WH Press Secretary, reaffirmed Trump’s tax talk saying the administration will be releasing a new tax plan for business and individuals in a few weeks.&#160; However, taxes will take a back seat to Obamacare reform which remains top priority.&#160; Today, Trump meets with the Japanese Prime Minister and the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is sure to be discussed.</p>
<p>Watch Trump’s presser with Shinzo Abe at 1pm ET during Cavuto Coast to Coast.</p> | What's On Our Radar, February 10, 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/10/whats-on-our-radar-february-10-2017.html | 2017-02-10 | 0 |
<p>Illustration by Greg Clarke</p>
<p />
<p>Editors’ note: With Paul Ryan letting loose <a href="" type="internal">a string of whoppers</a> at the GOP&#160;convention, <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/08/paul-krugman-shows-newsweek-how-fact-check/56031/" type="external">Newsweek</a> <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/08/paul-krugman-shows-newsweek-how-fact-check/56031/" type="external">admitting</a> it doesn’t verify the accuracy of facts cited by its writers, and a top Romney aide defiantly <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/mitt-romney-_n_1836139.html" type="external">proclaiming</a>, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” political&#160;fact-checking has been a hot topic this campaign season. For our September/October issue, David Corn took an in-depth look at how the verification industry plays into the political lying game—and whether it makes any difference.</p>
<p>As Mitt Romney was buttoning up the Republican nomination this past spring, he <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2012/04/mitt-romney-delivers-remarks-newspaper-association-america" type="external">addressed the annual convention</a> of the American Society of News Editors in the cavernous ballroom of the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington, DC. He blasted President Obama for breaking a “promise” to keep unemployment below 8 percent—a charge that had <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romneys-claim-that-obama-said-stimulus-would-keep-unemployment-below-8-percent/2012/02/17/gIQA9A8MKR_blog.html" type="external">previously earned</a> Romney three Pinocchios from the Washington Post‘s “Fact Checker” column. He also slammed the president for “apologizing for America abroad”—an accusation that PolitiFact had months earlier <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jun/03/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-barack-obama-traveled-around-glob/" type="external">branded a “pants on fire” lie</a>. And he accused Obama of adding “nearly as much public debt as all the prior presidents combined” (a statement <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2012/04/romney-fundraising-pitch-skews-stats/" type="external">already judged “an exaggeration”</a> by FactCheck.org) and of cutting $500 million from Medicare ( <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/apr/04/mitt-romney/romney-obama-only-president-cut-medicare/" type="external">a “false” assertion</a> according to PolitiFact).</p>
<p>A politician mangling the truth is hardly news. Yet what was notable about this moment was that the candidate felt no compunction about appearing before more than 1,500 journalists and repeating whoppers that their own colleagues had so roundly debunked. Nor was Romney challenged about any of these untruths when it came time to ask questions. He was able to peddle a string of officially determined falsehoods before a crowd of newspaper editors—repeat: a crowd of newspaper editors—and face absolutely no consequences. The uncomfortable question for the press: With the news cycle overwhelmed by the headline-of-the-nanosecond, and with politicians ignoring or openly challenging the truth cops, how much does the much-heralded political fact-checking industry really matter?</p>
<p>Big Media’s push for independent and ongoing verification of newsmakers’ statements stretches back to the mid-2000s, when many news organizations were on the defensive over their failure to vet the Bush administration’s claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania launched FactCheck.org, with veteran CNN reporter Brooks Jackson at the helm, in 2003. PolitiFact, created by the St. Petersburg Times, and the Washington Post‘s Fact Checker followed four years later.</p>
<p>At the Post, reporter Michael Dobbs had proposed creating the Fact Checker feature because he believed, as he <a href="http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/the_rise_of_political_fact_checking_1" type="external">put it in a New America Foundation report</a>, DC reporting had “strayed away from the truth-seeking tradition” and become too hung up on the “he said, she said aspect.” Dobbs, who as a member of the paper’s national security team had seen what he called the “weapons of factual destruction” up close, said journalists were “permitting presidential candidates and others to get away with sometimes outrageous falsehoods.”</p>
<p>On the face of it, the fact-checking shops have thrived. Glenn Kessler, who inherited the Post column from Dobbs, now draws about 1 million page views a month. PolitiFact has set up sites in 11 states to zero in on local pols; it employs 35 full-time journalists. FactCheck.org has inspired <a href="http://www.flackcheck.org/" type="external">FlackCheck.org</a>, which uses humor to debunk spin. But as these operations expand in profile and size, are politicians any less inclined to distort and dissemble?</p>
<p>“I’m often asked this,” Kessler says, “and my response is, ‘I don’t write for the politicians. I write for the voters.’ The politicians will twist or spin information if they believe it will advance their political interests. With Romney, for instance, no matter how many times we say it is not true that Barack Obama apologized for America, he will not change that line. For his political interests, it’s a good line.”</p>
<p>Not all politicians, Kessler notes, have been so nonchalant. Back during the 2000 campaign, when he was fact-checking the presidential debates for the Post, Al Gore campaign aides “freaked out,” anxiously calling him ahead of debates to explain the facts that Gore intended to deploy—and making changes in response to his objections. (At the time, Gore was fighting the charge that he was a serial fabricator.) The Bush campaign, by contrast, couldn’t have cared less about the fact-checking push. Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary, “laughed about it,” Kessler recalls.</p>
<p>On Capitol Hill, too, some members have shown more respect for the fact-checkers than others. A senior Republican once told Kessler that he had closely reviewed his columns on health care to ensure he would not repeat claims judged false. In response to <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/dec/20/lie-year-democrats-claims-republicans-voted-end-me/" type="external">a controversial PolitiFact ruling</a>blasting Democrats for claiming that the Republican House budget would end Medicare—rather than end it “as we know it”—Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) changed how he referred to the GOP plan. Media fact-checking, Brown once said publicly, “makes us a little more cautious about what we repeat that we’ve heard.” (That same Medicare ruling, though, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/maddow-resumes-politifact-checking/2012/05/11/gIQAr1XzHU_blog.html%20" type="external">fueled a high-octane feud</a> between PolitiFact and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who attacked the fact-checkers’ conclusion as a product of GOP spin and declared PolitiFact “irrelevant.”)</p>
<p>Brown’s appreciation for fact-checking may be heightened because he is in a tough campaign against state Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican who has racked up a series of poor ratings from PolitiFact, <a href="http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/mar/20/josh-mandel/josh-mandel-says-sherrod-brown-responsible-ohio-jo/%20" type="external">including a “pants on fire”</a> for calling Brown “one of the main DC politicians responsible for Ohio jobs moving to China.” Mandel responded to that rating not by changing his tune, but by <a href="http://www.cjr.org/swing_states_project/the_plain_dealer_on_a_potentia.php?page=all&amp;print=true" type="external">going after the fact-checkers</a>, insisting that not only was the claim “100 percent truth” but that he would repeat it “again and again.”</p>
<p>And what of the 2012 presidential campaign? Have Obama and Romney been swayed by the work of the professional fact-checkers? Bill Adair, who runs PolitiFact, points to a few instances—just a few—when Obama shifted rhetorical direction in response to fact-check rulings. In 2008, he ceased saying that gas prices were “higher than ever” after PolitiFact <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/feb/11/barack-obama/he-needs-a-fill-up-on-statistics/" type="external">reported that this was false</a> when accounting for inflation. Later, when the president was pushing for health care reform, PolitiFact <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/11/barack-obama/barack-obama-promises-you-can-keep-your-health-ins/" type="external">challenged his statement</a> that consumers could keep their current plans under the new law. (Market upheaval, it contended, might knock out some existing insurance policies.) The president then <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/oct/09/barack-obama/obamas-plan-expands-existing-system/" type="external">tweaked his language</a>, saying that nothing in the bill would force consumers to switch, but he <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/06/28/remarks-president-supreme-court-ruling-affordable-care-act" type="external">has since relapsed</a> and used the original formulation.</p>
<p>Asked for an example of Romney altering an assertion or ad in response to a fact-check, Adair, after a long pause, remarks, “I don’t recall one offhand…They have quoted us a lot—when it boosts their case.”</p>
<p>Kessler says the rise of fact-checking has led to political marketers striving for “a modicum of truthiness” in their ads—such as including citations. But, he adds, that hardly means the spots are any more accurate. When he <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/over-the-top-attacks-on-obamas-green-energy-programs/2012/04/29/gIQAx9XeqT_blog.html" type="external">examined an ad</a> produced by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity that accused the president of spending billions of stimulus dollars for green-energy jobs “overseas,” he found that the spot had blatantly misrepresented the news stories it cited. (Four Pinocchios!)</p>
<p>Whether or not they change their tune in response to the fact-checkers, the Obama and Romney organizations do spend time tending to them. The Obama campaign has assigned a deputy press secretary to be its point person for fact-checkers’ questions. Several staffers at Romney HQ do the same. Both campaigns complain about being overwhelmed by the requests that flood their inboxes, and they gripe about the ensuing judgments. “If we say the sky is blue, we would get a ‘half-true’ because we didn’t give the full explanation that the sky is blue because of chemical reactions that occurred in the atmosphere a million years ago,” one aide grouses.</p>
<p>One major subplot of the summer campaign season began when the Post‘s Fact Checker column <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/4-pinocchios-for-obamas-newest-anti-romney-ad/2012/06/20/gJQAGux6qV_blog.html" type="external">handed the Obama campaign</a> four Pinocchios for calling Romney a “corporate raider [who] shipped jobs to China and Mexico.” The vetters argued that Bain Capital’s investments in outsourcing firms came after Romney claimed he left the company in February 1999. Yet on the same day, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romneys-bain-capital-invested-in-companies-that-moved-jobs-overseas/2012/06/21/gJQAsD9ptV_story.html" type="external">a lengthy investigation</a> by another Post reporter showed that Romney had invested in outsourcing firms well before that point. That set off a controversy over when exactly Romney left Bain: After <a href="" type="internal">I reported</a> that Securities and Exchange Commission documents listed him as being involved well into 2001, other outlets <a href="" type="internal">picked up the story</a>, and the Romney campaign was forced to argue that signing SEC filings and being listed as managing director, president, and CEO of the company did not mean he was involved with Bain deals in any way.</p>
<p>By this time, it was clear that the Obama and Romney operations had each come to see the fact-checkers the same way candidate Mandel did in Ohio: not as arbiters whose verdicts must be heeded, but as participants in the ever-roiling political tussle. The Obama campaign <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=5&amp;ved=0CGUQFjAE&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Ffactcheck.org%2FUploadedFiles%2F2012%2F07%2FOFA-FACTCHECK-LETTER-FINAL.pdf&amp;ei=CQEkUMy4L-SEjALovYDADg&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQHP5SsXy53fBMN7RULYWWNJZeog&amp;sig2=pWi6NIuJ2iIgTYwcHeLcWA" type="external">released a six-page letter</a> challenging the fact-checkers’ findings on the outsourcing claim, while the Romney campaign <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/truth" type="external">put out a TV spot</a> that charged Obama with bending the truth, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/us/politics/romney-demands-apology-from-obama-on-bain-allegations.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">demanded an apology</a>.</p>
<p>This is no small matter: If fact-checking comes to be seen as merely another front in routine political warfare, that perception threatens the whole enterprise. To judge credibility, the fact-checkers must be regarded as credible judges. But each time they are pulled into a scuffle with politicians, they can look more like political actors to the public—an assumption that especially benefits those politicians who lie with the greatest abandon.</p>
<p>That’s particularly ironic because the fact-checkers go out of their way to not appear the least bit partisan—none of the three sites will offer a verdict on which candidate lies more, or with greater panache. “I try to avoid being quoted saying either side has more falsehoods than the other,” Adair says. As of July, the Post‘s Pinocchio tracker did show Obama with a slightly lower average number of Pinocchios than Romney—but this ranking was based only on the statements the column happened to review. (Michele Bachmann had the highest average for the 2012 primary campaign.) That same month, PolitiFact noted that of the Romney statements it had examined, 31 percent were true or mostly true, 17 percent were false, and 13 percent had earned a “pants on fire.” Obama fared better, with 46 percent of his claims rated true or mostly true, 15 percent false, and only 5 percent “pants on fire.”</p>
<p>But with the fact-checking outfits knocking both candidates and declining to explicitly compare their relative slipperiness, it might actually be easier for politicians to weather Pinocchios, pants-on-fire ratings, and whatnot. In the end, the flood of vetting fosters the they-all-do-it impression that gives cover to pols who prevaricate the most. One might argue that, say, Romney’s untruths have been more foundational than Obama’s (such as when he asserted there had been “no new jobs” created under Obama), but with all the Pinocchios flying about, such a distinction can be lost. The major incentive for lying—to score a political point—remains unchanged.</p>
<p>That’s in part because fact-checking has remained its own ghetto—or, as Adair prefers to call it, an “elite specialization.” “I am a supplement to political coverage, not a replacement,” Kessler says. “I can go on for 2,000 words to examine one phrase. It’s hard to do that on a daily story.” And unlike the beat reporters, adds Adair, he and his team don’t have to fret about maintaining access to campaign sources. Day-to-day reporting, by contrast, remains focused on the who’s up/who’s down, gaffe-du-jour, rubber-and-glue game of the campaign trail. This summer, I suggested to a well-regarded reporter covering Romney that it might be worth asking the candidate about a particularly bogus claim he had been making: “With Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy, and we will have effectively ceased to be a free-enterprise society.” I had <a href="" type="internal">written about the charge</a>—quoting one economist who called it “ridiculous” and another who said, “This analysis is so stupid it is hard to know where to begin”—and FactCheck.org <a href="http://factcheck.org/2012/05/romneys-gross-exaggeration-on-obamacare%20" type="external">subsequently dubbed it</a> “patently false and misleading,” while Kessler <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romneys-nonsensical-claim-about-obamacare/2012/06/11/gJQAdGtdVV_blog.html%20" type="external">handed it four Pinocchios</a>.</p>
<p>But the reporter, caught up in the spectacle of Romney’s latest bus tour, hadn’t heard of the remark, nor any of the vetting. With the news cycle moving at Twitter speed, a candidate snared in a lie only has to wait a few moments for the media to move on. The sting fades quickly.</p>
<p>In the weeks following my conversation with the reporter, Romney did not repeat his outlandish claim. Had the fact-checkers derailed the charge? There was no telling. But after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare, his campaign <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy7msPQ23-o&amp;feature=youtu.be" type="external">released a statement from a surrogate</a> noting that Obama favored a “government-centered society” with “government-rationed healthcare.” <a href="http://factcheck.org/2012/06/romney-obama-uphold-health-care-falsehoods/" type="external">FactCheck.org</a> and <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/aug/25/rationing-scare-words-health-care-debate%20" type="external">PolitiFact</a> had each previously stated that it was inaccurate to refer to Obamacare as rationing. The Romney camp didn’t care.</p>
<p>But the campaign was paying close attention to the vetters in one way—as a convenient supply of ammunition. When it <a href="http://obamaisntworking.com/press/president-obama-doubles-down-on-his-discredited-distortions%20" type="external">zapped out a press release</a> accusing Obama of hurling “discredited distortions” about Romney’s Bain record, it prominently noted its sources: Kessler and FactCheck.org.</p>
<p /> | How to Beat the Fact-Checkers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/factcheck-politifact-lying-politicians/ | 2018-09-01 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Mexico's peso continued its steep decline against the U.S. dollar, falling to a record low of 21 to $1 on Friday, as Mexican officials prepared for a possible wave of Mexicans returning from the United States.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The peso had already broken the psychological barrier of 20 to $1 earlier this week, following the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential elections.</p>
<p>The Mexican currency fell by almost 13 percent this week, its steepest one-week drop in at least a decade.</p>
<p>The peso traded as low as 21.26, before recovering slightly to an interbank rate of 20.95.</p>
<p>Authorities say the drop is due to global uncertainty following the U.S. election.</p>
<p>But Mexico has been hit particularly hard. Trump has criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Mexico depends on.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>He also promised to build a wall between the two nations and suggested high tariffs on Mexican goods, and suggested that people who entered the United States illegally will be deported.</p>
<p>On Friday, Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong signed an agreement with a leading business chamber to help find work for Mexicans who return to their country.</p>
<p>"We are broadening the alternatives for our countrymen who return, so that they can put their talent and characteristic effort to work on behalf of the communities and the development of their country," Osorio Chong said.</p>
<p>Some Mexicans who are deported or return voluntarily don't have valid identification documents in their home country, like voter registration cards.</p>
<p>The new effort encourages businesses to accept other types of identification.</p> | Mexico's peso continues free-fall, sinking to 21 to $1 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/11/mexico-peso-continues-free-fall-sinking-to-21-to-1.html | 2016-11-11 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Alex Koglin, co-founder and president of NTxBio, at the company's lab at Santa Fe Community College. Koglin says the NTxBio system can cut the time it takes to develop new drugs. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Copyright - 2016 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a new way to rapidly screen thousands of microorganisms for potential antibiotics, then quickly reproduce them, leading to the discovery of two new compounds that could, eventually, help fight resistant bacteria.</p>
<p>Two of the scientists involved with the project, structural biologist Alex Koglin and human biologist Michael Humbert, are now working to build the system into a commercial platform that could help pharmaceutical companies rapidly push new medicines into the market. They co-founded a new startup, NTxBio LLC, with an initial $500,000 in funding from local investors connected to the Santa Fe-based business accelerator High Desert Discovery District, or HD3.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Koglin said the NTxBio system can cut the time it takes to identify and develop new drugs from years to months.</p>
<p>"It's significantly cheaper and much shorter," Koglin said. "Traditional methods generally take about six to eight years. We've condensed that down to a year and a half."</p>
<p>If successful, the NTxBio process could radically improve today's antibiotic development bottleneck, said HD3 founder and CEO Michelle Miller. That bottleneck has allowed drug-resistant bacteria to cripple efforts to control some diseases, such as deadly skin infections caused by the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA.</p>
<p>"It has the potential to flat out change the way drugs are developed and brought to market," Miller said.</p>
<p>The LANL scientists, led by Koglin, used the lab's expertise and advanced capabilities in genomic sequencing and bioinformatics - the combination of computer science, statistics, mathematics and engineering to analyze biological data - to screen thousands of microorganisms to identify enzymes and microbial processes that have antibiotic potential.</p>
<p>From some 30,000 clusters of enzymes, the team isolated 75 with promising characteristics for further analysis. And from those, it managed to isolate two new antimicrobial compounds, thermocellomycin and aurantiamycin. In further testing, those compounds were shown to inhibit the growth of 13 pathogen species, including MRSA and other bacteria that cause things such as anthrax, plague and a life-threatening gastrointestinal disease.</p>
<p>The team's trick for rapid identification is not just the lab's high-tech advances in genomic sequencing and bioinformatics, but the way the team applied those processes. Rather than just keying in on new compounds, the scientists looked for clusters of enzymes that are scattered throughout cells that work together to form those compounds. It was a matter of identifying the key enzymes that need to be put together in a certain order to reproduce the process that the cell uses to create antimicrobial compounds, according to Rebecca McDonald, a LANL science writer who described the process in the October edition of LANL's science and technology magazine.</p>
<p>"It's kind of like looking for all the words in a sentence, but not requiring that they be in the right grammatical order - just whether certain words are there, within certain proximity parameters," McDonald wrote.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After keying in on promising compounds, then identifying the enzyme clusters and processes that create them, the team worked to reproduce those compounds synthetically in a lab. Koglin calls it a "cell-free" reproduction process that eliminates the traditional need to grow cultures, which is tedious, slow and costly. Rather, NTxBio builds the compounds by mimicking the way the enzymes originally worked together in cells.</p>
<p>"It's basically a Frankenstein," Koglin said. "All the pieces are there, but it's not living."</p>
<p>By streamlining the process, NTxBio can not only rapidly identify and reproduce new potential antibiotics and other drugs, it could develop a pipeline of medicines to replace antibiotics as bacteria build up fresh resistance, Koglin said. As a result, the new system can immensely reduce drug discovery and development costs.</p>
<p>"The lifetime of patents can be stretched to provide a sustainable revenue stream over many years," Koglin said. "That will lead to the development of many more drugs while also lowering prices."</p>
<p>The company, which moved in December to a lab at Santa Fe Community College, is considering a variety of business models to market its technology. That includes licensing its system to pharmaceutical firms, doing drug discovery and reproduction on contract for companies, or pushing new drugs through pre-clinical studies on its own before allowing established drug companies to take over.</p>
<p>Company investors say they're now working to establish critical industry partnerships and develop the right business model.</p>
<p>"This company truly has the ability to be New Mexico's unicorn," said Matthew Ennis, a serial entrepreneur and one of the NTxBio investors. "It's still at a very early stage and many things can go wrong, but the core elements of the technology are very compelling."</p>
<p />
<p /> | NM startup radically streamlines drug development | false | https://abqjournal.com/747150/nm-startup-focuses-on-drug-development.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CINCINNATI — A mother of five who was wounded in the Cincinnati nightclub shooting described a chaotic scene in which she and other club patrons were frantically crawling over one another to reach the exits and said that all she could think about was her children.</p>
<p>One man was killed and Angel Higgins and 15 other people were injured in the shooting at the Cameo club, a popular hip-hop music spot near the Ohio river east of downtown Cincinnati. The venue’s operator says it is closing Friday.</p>
<p>Higgins told WCPO-TV that she had one thought going through her mind: I can’t die in this club.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“All I was thinking about was my kids,” Higgins said. “Am I going to make it up out of here?”</p>
<p>The initial investigation indicated a dispute in the bar escalated into a gunfight early Sunday, Police Chief Eliot Isaac said. Police believe multiple shooters were involved, and they estimate more than 20 shots were fired. No club security footage of the shooting has emerged.</p>
<p>Higgins said she felt one bullet fly past her face. Soon after, another struck her in the leg and she collapsed.</p>
<p>“I fell and everybody was just diving on me, falling on top of me, and all I thought was, ‘I cannot die by getting smothered by all these people,'” she said.</p>
<p>Higgins stumbled out of the club and then drove herself to a hospital. She said police and firefighters used ambulances for those victims who were more seriously injured. Two of the injured remained in critical condition Tuesday, and three were in stable condition.</p>
<p>The Hamilton County coroner’s office said Tuesday that O’Bryan Spikes, the 27-year-old man killed in the shooting, died from a single gunshot to the chest. No other information was released on the coroner’s finding.</p>
<p>Police declined to comment on whether they had identified any possible suspects, but Isaac said they were making progress in their investigation.</p>
<p>Cameo club operator Julian “Jay” Rodgers released a statement late Monday saying the venue would close its doors after receiving notice to vacate from the property owner. He said Cameo had planned to move out in May because of the landlord’s planned sale of the property but will turn over the keys Friday instead. He earlier voluntarily surrendered its liquor license.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Rodgers denied that some people were allowed to bypass security checks that included metal-detection wands. Some patrons have said people could pay to avoid the long line to get into the club, which police said had some 200 people inside.</p>
<p>“There have been untrue reports that certain patrons were allowed to enter the club without passing through security,” Rodgers, a veteran of Cincinnati-area entertainment venues, said in his statement. “This was not permitted.”</p>
<p>Higgins told WCPO she thought it was likely people were getting in without security checks. She said security just looked at her ID and let her in.</p>
<p>Rodgers said two of four privately paid uniformed Cincinnati police officers there had a clear view of security procedures. Isaac has emphasized that the officers on off-duty security detail remained outside before the shooting and that the club was responsible for its inside security.</p>
<p>Isaac said he was aware of reports of a security bypass line, but police hadn’t confirmed that.</p>
<p>City officials said Cameo had been the scene of past violence, including a shooting inside the club on New Year’s Day in 2015 and one in the parking lot in September of that year.</p>
<p>Ohio liquor agents said the club was cited for drug abuse and drug possession violations after an inspection following the shooting. Agents reported finding marijuana in plain view along with partially smoked marijuana in an employee-only section.</p>
<p>Adam Johnson of the Ohio Investigative Unit said Monday the club was cited once before, in 2015, for drug abuse.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Seewer reported from Toledo. AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.</p> | Club shooting victim: ‘All I was thinking about was my kids’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/977411/club-shooting-victim-all-i-was-thinking-about-was-my-kids.html | 2017-03-28 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>HOUSTON - Activists are demanding the release of video they believe shows the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a Houston police officer.</p>
<p>Houston police spokesman John Cannon confirmed Monday that video is among evidence in the investigation into the killing of 26-year-old Jordan Baker in January 2014. Police have not confirmed that any video shows Baker's death.</p>
<p>The Houston Chronicle reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1IyrMaW" type="external">http://bit.ly/1IyrMaW</a> ) that a group gathered outside the Houston Police Department headquarters Monday to call for the video's release.</p>
<p>Baker was killed by off-duty officer Juventino Castro. A grand jury declined to indict Castro last December, citing a lack of evidence.</p>
<p>The department says it won't release any evidence now, as allowed by the Texas Government Code, due to possible civil litigation and on advice from the city attorney.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Houston Chronicle, <a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com" type="external">http://www.houstonchronicle.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Activists demand video in fatal 2014 Houston police shooting | false | https://abqjournal.com/683859/activists-demand-video-in-fatal-2014-houston-police-shooting.html | 2 |
|
<p>In what would have been a kind gesture, a Zhongshan man invited a beggar off the streets into his home. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as well as he hoped.</p>
<p>The kind-hearted man lived in southern China, and his young granddaughter was with him. He passed a woman on the street who was obviously in bad shape to come in for a hot meal. What happened next was unexpected.</p>
<p>The Good Samaritan discovered that the woman had <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1901328/kindly-chinese-man-invites-beggar-dinner-and-she-abducts-his" type="external">kidnapped</a> the three-year-old girl from his&#160;care.</p>
<p>How could the man have known that the beggar was going to become aggressive? When the man spotted her, she appeared to be a kind woman in her 40s.</p>
<p>The beggar, who was not named in initial reports, gained the man's trust at his home when they talked for a couple hours over a meal. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the man wasn't paying attention.</p>
<p>The family swiftly informed the police, and the woman was arrested the day after the kidnapping. Thankfully, the man's granddaughter appeared to be uninjured following the kidnapping.</p>
<p>The motive behind the woman's behavior has yet to be revealed, and the family is likely thrilled that she was found so quickly.</p> | Sweet Old Chinese Man Invites Beggar For Dinner, She Abducts His Toddler Granddaughter | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/01/27/sweet-old-chinese-man-invites-beggar-for-dinner-she-abducts-his-toddler-granddaughter/ | 2016-01-27 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Eighty-eight percent of companies are set to have an office party this year, compared with 96 percent in 2013 and 91 percent in 2012, according to an annual survey by executive search team Battalia Winston.</p>
<p>The dip in parties comes as businesses say they are “performing very well,” according to the survey. More than 60 percent of respondents said their businesses were on track to grow and hire in 2015.</p>
<p>One reason for the decline might be the growing number of employees who work remotely. Fourteen percent of businesses said a remote workforce made holiday parties impossible, up from 5 percent last year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Most employees attending parties will be surrounded by only their colleagues. More than two-thirds of companies throwing a party said the guest list would be limited to employees and nearly three-fourths of companies will serve alcohol.</p>
<p>Hoping for a raise? Not this year. Only 14 percent of companies said they would pay raises. Instead, they will offer other incentives, such as flexible schedules or team-building exercises.</p>
<p>(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)</p>
<p>Ken Wisnefski, chief executive of WebiMax, an Internet marketing firm, said not having a holiday party can hurt morale and productivity. Failing to consider morale, he said, could lead to higher employee turnover rates and more conflicts between employees.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2014 Chicago Tribune</p>
<p>Visit the Chicago Tribune at <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com" type="external">www.chicagotribune.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC</p>
<p>———-</p>
<p>Topics: t000002899,t000156697</p> | Fewer office parties planned this year | false | https://abqjournal.com/507880/fewer-office-parties-planned-this-year.html | 2 |
|
<p>HARARE, Zimbabwe - A wave of violence that has hit Zimbabwe in recent weeks has left the southern African nation on a knife edge, prompting coalition partner Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai once again to seek the intervention of regional leaders.</p>
<p>The violence is reminiscent of 2008, when Mugabe supporters led a brutal campaign of violence against supporters of Tsvangirai, the president's bitter rival, after the opposition leader won the first round of voting in presidential polls.</p>
<p>It took months then to resolve those clashes. Regional powers called upon to mediate cobbled together a power-sharing coalition between Tsvangirai and Mugabe. Since then, Zimbabwe has muddled along without any real reforms.</p>
<p>More: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/zimbabwe/110803/opinion-zimbabwe-not-ready-free-and-fair-election" type="external">Zimbabwe not ready for free and fair elections</a></p>
<p>As both men look toward potential elections next year, the resurgence of violence suggests a worrying trend. Residents of a poor town 30 kilometers southeast of the capital, Harare, over the weekend woke up to scenes of violence reminiscent of 2008, when the military led a brutal campaign against President Robert Mugabe after he had lost first-round voting to bitter rival and now coalition partner Morgan Tsvangirai.</p>
<p>The chilly morning&#160;weather was supposed to be a respite after days of scorching heat on Sunday for the residents of Chitungwiza town, a bastion of Tsvangirai support.</p>
<p>But vicious gangs armed to the teeth descended on the neighborhood and pounced on Tsvangirai's supporters who were gathering for a rally due mid-morning that day.</p>
<p>Young men and children as young as 10 attacked with machetes, wooden clubs, catapults, iron bars and stones, turning the town of over 1 million people into a mini-battle zone.</p>
<p>More: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/africa-emerges/poachers-poison-water-holes-zimbabwe" type="external">Elephants poisoned in Zimbabwe</a></p>
<p>Residents caught in the crossfire were forced to lock themselves inside their homes, although some houses had window panes destroyed during the violence.</p>
<p>Police, long accused by Tsvangirai and his civil-society partners of being pro-Mugabe, watched as the gang ran riot.</p>
<p>Tsvangirai said the violence was a sign of things to come, warning that failure by the regional Southern African Development Community, which helped strike the coalition government, to intervene would worsen the situation.</p>
<p>SADC holds sway over political processes in Zimbabwe after being mandated by the African Union in 2008 to mediate and ensure credible elections. SADC has in turn asked South African President Jacob Zuma to handle to Zimbabwe crisis.</p>
<p>Previous appeals by the regional group for Mugabe to end violence have fallen on deaf ears.</p>
<p>But this has not stopped finance minister and MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti from writing to Zuma asking him to ratchet up political pressure on Mugabe.</p>
<p>No election date has been announced yet, but both Mugabe and Tsvangirai agree they are fed up with their unworkable coalition and want elections before the end of 2013.</p>
<p>Mugabe, who is in his late 80s and reportedly suffering from failing health, wants the vote as soon as the first quarter of next year. Tsvangirai insists he will only participate in elections once electoral reforms, including a new constitution, are in place and political violence is completely eradicated.</p>
<p>"If the current situation prevails, then the election will be a sham. We have to create conditions for free and fair elections that are universally accepted. It is time for Sadc to use its muscle," Tsvangirai said Monday.</p>
<p>Analysts and civil-society groups say Mugabe is in election mode and therefore unlikely to force his supporters to abandon violence as a strategy.</p>
<p>"This is going to be the situation going forward," said Macdonald Lewanika, whose group, Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe has in the past met Zuma to press the urgency of resolving the Zimbabwe crisis.</p>
<p>The violence in Chitungwiza followed several cases reported countrywide in recent weeks. In some of the cases, members of parliament who had been conducting public hearings on proposed amendments to electoral laws were forced to retreat after Mugabe's supporters violently disrupted the meetings.</p>
<p>Rindai Chipfunde Vava, director of the country's biggest independent elections monitoring group, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said her group "fears for the worst."</p>
<p>"We have been monitoring the situation, and early signs are that we are sliding back to the 2008 era. Political gangs are regrouping and arming for a campaign of violence," she said.</p> | Renewed violence rocks Zimbabwe | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-10/renewed-violence-rocks-zimbabwe | 2011-11-10 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Hip-hop collective Doomtree spent more than a year working on the songs featured on its new album, “All Hands.”</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s difficult to maintain your own voice in the music industry, much less as a member of a hip-hop collaborative.</p>
<p>Yet, Stefon Alexander looks forward to the collaboration of Doomtree.</p>
<p>“We’ve worked together for so long, we know where each person is coming from,” he says during a recent interview from Fort Collins, Colo. “It’s been great to get back with the group again.”</p>
<p>Alexander, who performs under the moniker P.O.S., is a member of the indie hip-hop collective and record label Doomtree. The collective has seven members: P.O.S., Dessa, Cecil Otter, Sims, Mike Mictlan, Lazerbeak and Paper Tiger.</p>
<p />
<p>The collective released its 12th effort, “All Hands,” on Jan. 27. Alexander says it took about a year to record.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It’s always fun to be in the crew setting,” he says. “It seems to be a little more fun than writing solo. There’s some pressure in terms of writing, but not as much as writing solo.”</p>
<p>Alexander says writing for the record turned into a workshop-type situation. The entire group would get together and flesh out the ideas.</p>
<p>“Personally, I get to test everything out,” he says. “There’s really no right way to do what we do. It’s amazing to be a part of this crew.”</p>
<p>Alexander says working on the album also got his creative juices flowing for his own album. Though it’s in the rough stages right now, he plans to hit the studio as soon as the touring is done.</p>
<p>“It’s about finding time to write now,” he says. “My focus is on the new record and my stuff will fall into place after tour. I’ve definitely got some new ideas on what I want to do. We’ve got some shows coming up at South by Southwest in Austin and then it’s back home for us. That’s when the next phase of work begins.”</p>
<p /> | Collectively hip-hop: Seven artists come together to make up Doomtree | false | https://abqjournal.com/554387/albuquerque-hiphop-collective.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>GOLDEN, Colo. — Authorities say two people, including an Albuquerque man, have died in tubing accidents in Colorado this week.</p>
<p>Golden police say a 48-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, flipped off of her inner tube and went underwater Friday afternoon. She resurfaced downstream and was pulled from the water.</p>
<p>Firefighters and park rangers performed CPR, but the woman died at a hospital.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, The Durango Herald reports 31-year-old Manuel Gallegos, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was taken off of life support Thursday. Gallegos, who was not wearing a life jacket or helmet, was critically injured when he fell out of his inner tube at the Animas River Whitewater Park in southwestern Colorado on Sunday.</p>
<p>His death has been ruled an accident.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | ABQ man dies after tubing accident in Colorado | false | https://abqjournal.com/1036777/abq-man-dies-after-tubing-accident-in-colorado.html | 2 |
|
<p>The European Central Bank kept its super-easy monetary policy unchanged as expected on Thursday, maintaining extraordinary stimulus to aid a tepid recovery in growth after nearly a decade in the doldrums.</p>
<p>With growth slowly picking up pace, the ECB kept rates deep in negative territory and asset buys at a record pace, likely arguing that the recovery is not yet self sustaining and underlying inflation is still too low.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Repeating its standard guidance, the bank said rates would stay at their current or lower levels for an extended period and it was also ready to increase or extend it bond purchases if the outlook worsens.</p>
<p>"If the outlook becomes less favorable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress toward a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation, the Governing Council stands ready to increase the program in terms of size and/or duration," the ECB said in a statement.</p>
<p>Attention now turns to ECB President Mario Draghi's news conference at 1330 GMT, where he is expected to acknowledge that the growth outlook has improved but will highlight ample risks and argue that turning down the taps now is inappropriate.</p>
<p>The recovery still relies heavily on ECB stimulus and markets could become more volatile as the Federal Reserve gradually raises rates, underscoring diverging policy paths between Europe and the U.S.</p>
<p>"Draghi seems to be comfortable to allow inflation to drift higher before declaring full victory over deflation," David Kohl an economist at Swiss private bank Julius Baer, said before the decision.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>On the face of it, Draghi should be relaxed. Inflation hit a three year high last month, manufacturing activity is accelerating and confidence indicators are firming, all pointing to solid growth at the end of last year.</p>
<p>Indeed, euro zone business growth was the fastest in more than five years in December, order books are surging on export demand, and consumption is holding up, despite rising energy costs, all pointing to the sort of resilience not seen since before the bloc's debt crisis.</p>
<p>The underlying picture is mixed, however, giving Draghi plenty of arguments to bat back criticism, particularly from Germany, the bloc's biggest economy and the ECB's top policy foe.</p>
<p>Inflation is still just half of the bank's 2 percent target and the jump is mostly down to higher oil prices while underlying price growth remains dangerously weak.</p>
<p>The market euphoria after Donald Trump's surprising U.S. election win is also yet to be backed up concrete policy action and the threat of more protectionist policies from the United States and possibly Britain could reverse market sentiment.</p>
<p>GERMAN ANGST</p>
<p>The ECB last month agreed to cut its asset buys by a quarter from April but extended the 2.3 trillion euro scheme, known as quantitative easing, until the end of the year, promising substantial accommodation and extended market presence.</p>
<p>The extension threatens to reignite tensions between the bank and Berlin, particularly as Germany heads toward an election in the fall and with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble often pointing the finger at the ECB for problems.</p>
<p>Berlin argues that super cheap borrowing costs negate pressure on inefficient euro zone members to reform but unduly punish frugal German savers, who have seen the return on their savings evaporate.</p>
<p>Indeed, with German inflation rates above the euro zone average and government bond yields in negative territory across much of the yield curve, real rates are negative for many savers, pushing some voters toward the rightist Alternative for Germany party.</p>
<p>Still, cutting back stimulus may be a double edged sword, even for Germany, which is struggling with a bloated and inefficient bank sector. Higher ECB rates would not only cost the budget billions of euros in extra spending but would risk thwarting a still fledgling lending growth.</p>
<p>"The lending channel is no longer clogged up, but it is not completely free either and progress has only been possible thanks to massive measures by the ECB," Commerzbank said before the decision.</p>
<p>"If monetary policy were to be tightened again, and the burdens from existing loans were to increase once more, the lending channel would close and the economic picture would worsen considerably again," Commerzbank added.</p>
<p>(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)</p> | ECB maintains stimulus as growth picks up speed | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/19/ecb-maintains-stimulus-as-growth-picks-up-speed.html | 2017-01-19 | 0 |
<p>ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A northern Illinois city’s mayor says he will seek limits on city powers if voters approve a March referendum that would restore home rule authority.</p>
<p>Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara says home rule will give the city greater authority to solve its own problems and implement local regulations, taxes and fees. However, he said Wednesday he’ll ask City Council to approve “self-limiting” and accountability measures in response to worries such authority can be abused.</p>
<p>Those measures include allowing the recall of city officials, continued limits on debt and caps on raising property taxes.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rrstar.com/news/20180117/rockford-mayor-seeks-limits-to-home-rule-powers" type="external">Rockford Register Star</a> reports McNamara and leaders of a resident-run Rockford for Home Rule campaign argue home rule authority would “end our reliance on a dysfunctional state government.” Voters stripped Rockford of home rule authority in 1983.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Rockford Register Star, <a href="http://www.rrstar.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rrstar.com" type="external">http://www.rrstar.com</a></p>
<p>ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A northern Illinois city’s mayor says he will seek limits on city powers if voters approve a March referendum that would restore home rule authority.</p>
<p>Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara says home rule will give the city greater authority to solve its own problems and implement local regulations, taxes and fees. However, he said Wednesday he’ll ask City Council to approve “self-limiting” and accountability measures in response to worries such authority can be abused.</p>
<p>Those measures include allowing the recall of city officials, continued limits on debt and caps on raising property taxes.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.rrstar.com/news/20180117/rockford-mayor-seeks-limits-to-home-rule-powers" type="external">Rockford Register Star</a> reports McNamara and leaders of a resident-run Rockford for Home Rule campaign argue home rule authority would “end our reliance on a dysfunctional state government.” Voters stripped Rockford of home rule authority in 1983.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Rockford Register Star, <a href="http://www.rrstar.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.rrstar.com" type="external">http://www.rrstar.com</a></p> | Rockford mayor says he’ll seek limits to home rule powers | false | https://apnews.com/801f86ac60f842c1bd27eb41144572f4 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>COURIC</p>
<p>NEW YORK – Katie Couric is getting married to her financier boyfriend, John Molner.</p>
<p>Couric’s spokesman Matthew Hiltzik confirmed the engagement Tuesday morning following a report by People magazine.</p>
<p>Molner gave 56-year-old Couric, the former host of “Today,” a diamond ring over the weekend in East Hampton. Molner, 50, is a partner at investment firm Brown Brothers Harriman, who oversees mergers and acquisitions advisory work for the firm’s corporate clients. The couple have dated for nearly two years.</p>
<p>Couric’s husband, Jay Monahan, died in 1998 from colon cancer. She is the mother of two daughters, now 21 and 17.</p>
<p>Her talk show, “Katie,” starts its second season Monday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Katie Couric to wed longtime boyfriend | false | https://abqjournal.com/257396/katie-couric-to-wed-longtime-boyfriend.html | 2013-09-04 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>District Judge John Paternoster</p>
<p>Paternoster will retire from his post in the 8th Judicial District effective July 17, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It's time for me to go, I'm tired," said Paternoster, when asked why he was stepping down.</p>
<p>Paternoster sent a one-sentence retirement letter, dated May 6, to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara J. Vigil.</p>
<p>Paternoster was first appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson while he was a private practice defense attorney in Taos. Previously Paternoster had been elected as the district attorney for the 8th Judicial District for one term. The northern New Mexico judicial district consists of Taos, Colfax and Union counties.</p>
<p>Paternoster also worked for three district attorneys in three judicial districts and three attorneys general.</p>
<p>Paternoster attended the University of New Mexico and graduated with a BA in history and geology in 1971. "He later exchanged a promising career in a Nevada casino for a desire to learn and practice law," according to his biography on his court website. In 1976, he graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Wash.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While in private practice in Taos, Paternoster gained media notoriety during a spate of northern New Mexico cattle mutilations. He urged that the incidents be investigated forensically in the same way crimes such as homicides are probed.</p>
<p>Paternoster was born in Cooperstown, N.Y., and is a lifelong baseball fan. He lives in Raton with his wife Pam.</p>
<p>An independent nominating commission will solicit and interview candidates to fill Paternoster's position and a judge will then be appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez. The appointee will then have to run for election in the next general election in 2016.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 8th Judicial District Judge Paternoster is retiring | false | https://abqjournal.com/584401/8th-judicial-district-judge-paternoster-is-retiring.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. On Wednesday in Cairo, Fatah and Hamas announced a reconciliation. In a season of a lot of surprises in the Middle East, this was one, I think, most analysts were not expecting. What this means for the future of negotiations with Israel is yet to be seen, but Fatah and Hamas apparently have made a deal. Now joining us to discuss and analyze the significance of these events is Noura Erakat. She's a Palestinian attorney and activist. She's the legal advocacy coordinator at the Badil Center for Palestinian and Refugee and Residency Rights in Bethlehem, and she teaches in Washington. Thanks for joining us.
<p />
<p />NOURA ERAKAT, HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY, BADIL: Thank you for having me, Paul.
<p />
<p />JAY: So, first of all, did you see this coming? And it seems to me most people didn't.
<p />
<p />ERAKAT: It seems to be a surprise to everyone that this actually happened. It's something that many Palestinians have rallied for and called for globally, especially in the aftermath of triumphant victories in Egypt and Tunis. But nothing that we saw would come, would happen, in any short-term time frame, especially as quick as it happened--apparently, it was the outcome of little more than two weeks. And this comes on the heels of a similar, failed attempt, just in September. So while I'm very surprised that it happened, there are many reasons to explain the dramatic shift between the failed attempt in September and this now successful one in [incompr.]
<p />
<p />JAY: So, well, go ahead. So go ahead. What do you think are the main factors that led to this?
<p />
<p />ERAKAT: Well, pretty much it's the obvious: the fact that somebody as entrenched as Hosni Mubarak, a 30-year dictator who has been supported by the US, was able to be taken out nonviolently in a protest of 18 days. And not to [incompr.] qualification, of course. It has been very violent, especially against the Egyptian protesters. And similar events, of course, that were catalysts for Egypt that took place in Tunis sparked protests in Palestine that are unique in nature, whereas most protests had hitherto been targeting Israeli occupation, US intervention, Israeli apartheid. For the first time [incompr.] it became a matter of consensus building amongst the Palestinians, within the territories and the diaspora, to focus their efforts and their calls for reform and change on Palestinians themselves. And it was a call for an end to corruption, it was a call for unity, it was a call for greater representation, and one that was made not just within the territories, but globally, in that the call was for Palestinians to be recognized as a diaspora population. Self-determination is not limited to the establishment of a state in the occupied territory, but it is--also extends to the return of refugees, as well as the equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is quite, quite phenomenal. It's unprecedented in recent years, especially since the advent of the peace process in the early '90s. And because of that, it provided a catalyst for both Fatah and Hamas, who have interests and who are currently both very weak to compromise on their longstanding entrenched positions to actually come to a resolution to actually establish a unity government in the lead-up to the declaration of statehood in September 2011.
<p />
<p />JAY: So let's talk a little bit about the factors in both the West Bank and in Gaza. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah had been very discredited. The Palestinian papers through WikiLeaks had shown that they [are] willing to give away just about anything in the negotiations. The idea that there be a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state presented by Fatah and the PA at the United Nations in September, the people we've been talking to in the West Bank were practically put to sleep by the idea. They thought it was just such rhetoric. Now--and then in Gaza, Hamas was getting pushed from the other side. You had more rockets firing than in quite a while, the Israelis shelling back with quite a bit of intensity, and then the killing of the Italian activist by what seems to be a kind of extreme Islamist faction, perhaps, that was even in Hamas. Put all this stuff together for us. How does this lead to reconciliation?
<p />
<p />ERAKAT: This reconciliation and the lack of reconciliation preceding it is all based on political interests as opposed to a unified national interest defined by a Palestinian body. There are currently no existing transnational Palestinian governing bodies that would define a national interest, let alone a platform, let alone a political strategy, in order to achieve those goals. And so all we have ever had to deal with has been the discrete political interests of both Hamas and Fatah. Hamas, to its credit, has been less chastised by the Palestinian community globally because of its maintenance of a resistance platform to Israeli colonization and apartheid, its refusal to enter into a farce peace process. And so although its actions, its oppression of its own population have not been forgiven, they haven't been as heavily criticized as has been Fatah, which has basically put its faith in a US-brokered solution. That US-brokered solution played out the rest of--the end of its life when, at the UN, the US vetoed a Security Council resolution on settlements that mirrored precisely US foreign policy on settlements. There was no divergence whatsoever, and the US basically made its stance perfectly known that as far as it's concerned, the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would happen simply in bilateral negotiations. Any type of multilateral approach that was based on human rights norms or international law would not be entertained. And, therefore, if the Palestinians and Israelis couldn't come to an agreement in behind closed doors, then there was going to be no agreement. It became obvious to Fatah that the solution that it had been pursuing, to put its faith in the US, which also influenced it to rescind the Goldstone Report in 2009, which also made it a very weak party that was evidenced in the Palestine Papers because it was ready to make all these concessions in the faith that at the end of the day the US would deliver on its promises of statehood, made Fatah realize that there is nothing to come from the US at this point. And its horizon, the farthest that Fatah has seen its horizon is in plans for a statehood and the declaration of statehood in September 2011, which will only come to fruition through a Security Council resolution. And the US is likely to veto that as well. So the statehood plan has never been very palatable to the Palestinian [incompr.] The fact that Fatah was even proposing to present a resolution for statehood when it only had jurisdiction over truncated pieces of the West Bank made it look absolutely nonsensical and ridiculous. Now that it's extended its hand to include Gaza, it makes one less obstacle to the plan for statehood. But even with the West Bank and Gaza seemingly unified, there still remains open questions about the standing issues of the annexation wall, the lack of jurisdiction over East Jerusalem, the continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem. And still the lack of representations of a Palestinian diaspora, a Palestinian national body globally, means that even if there were to be an announcement of the state, is that necessarily--or the push for an announcement of the state, is that necessarily the political strategy that we need? Or is the strategy that we need one that's rights-based, that responds both to the conditions on the ground as well as to the state of the Palestinian national body that now exists, which is fragmented throughout the world? And so for most Palestinians on the ground who see the situation deteriorating steadily, it's quite obvious that even if there were a declaration of statehood, the conditions wouldn't change, and it wouldn't create more pressure upon Israel to end its colonization and to dismantle its apartheid policies, similar to the continuation of occupation in the Gaza strip, despite unilateral withdrawal in 2005.
<p />
<p />JAY: What's an example of the strategy you're talking about?
<p />
<p />ERAKAT: Such strategies include legal strategies in the form of universal jurisdiction to hold Israeli officials to account abroad for alleged war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead. The most fundamental strategy that the Palestinian civil society has asked solidarity communities to join it [in] is in the call and the movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions. Another strategy is to continue to fight for human rights within the human rights bodies, the [incompr.] making bodies in Geneva who have the wherewithal to be able to [incompr.] or to have concluding observations that find Israel's in violation. Yet another strategy is to actually enforce the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2004. It called upon the high-contracting parties of the Geneva Convention an order not to deal with any company or any Israeli endeavor that extended the route of the annexation wall as part of its obligations under the Geneva Conventions. These are all [incompr.] of possible pressure points. And the Palestinian leadership would benefit from actually leading that movement, as opposed to watching civil society lead it and be resentful of a Palestinian leadership that is, one, way behind it, and at best counterproductive to its strategies and intentions.
<p />
<p />JAY: So, Noura, so what expectations do you think people have for this process now?
<p />
<p />ERAKAT: What's interesting is that the civil society call amongst Palestinians, the demands upon their leadership for greater representation that have emerged in the US, in the UK, in Gaza and the West Bank, within Israel, in Lebanon, and throughout Europe, the calls have not just been limited to unity government. From research that I've done and from conversations that I've had, that call, that narrow call for unity, has emerged primarily from the Gaza Strip. But from the world over, the calls are much broader and the demands have actually been for an election for the Palestinian National Council that would create a more robust and representative Palestinian leadership that included all Palestinians in the diaspora and not just those governing administrative bodies in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the US, the calls have gone even further, to call for the termination of Oslo altogether, annulment of all security arrangements, primarily in the form of the Dayton forces with the US in the West Bank. And so there's--the movement is not likely to cease at this point. Hamas and Fatah were clearly responding to their street that was protesting along with their Arab brothers and sisters throughout the Arab world. But the calls--the Palestinian street is a global one and is not limited to the territories. And so it's likely that this pressure will continue, and hopefully, the leadership will be responsive to those continuing calls.
<p />
<p />JAY: Okay. Thanks for joining us, Noura.
<p />
<p />ERAKAT: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Fatah and Hamas Make a Deal | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D6686 | 2011-04-29 | 4 |
<p>Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools</p>
<p>Catalyst’s recent issue, <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/series/rise-of-noble/" type="external">The Rise of Noble,</a>presents a thoughtful portrait of Chicago’s largest charter school organization, the Noble Network of Charter Schools. In an era where rhetoric sometimes passes for reporting, it provides a glimpse into the inner workings of what has recently been recognized as “the best performing large charter school network in America.” One can reasonably debate the merits of Noble’s discipline policies or its teacher retention strategies, but it’s undeniable that Noble has had a net positive impact on Chicago’s youth. Furthermore, the mere presence of the institution has reshaped the public education landscape in Chicago for the better.</p>
<p>As recently as 2004, there were no CPS high schools (other than selective-enrollment schools) where the average student graduated ready for college. The college readiness benchmark on the ACT is 21 out of the possible 36 points.&#160; Not a single open-enrollment high school in the city met that benchmark for its average graduate in 2004. Today, there are three schools – all run by Noble – where the average student has a college-ready ACT score, which opens the door to more selective colleges with higher institutional graduation rates. In fact, Noble schools made up 7 of the top 10 non-selective schools in Chicago on last year’s ACT.</p>
<p>Despite Noble’s proven track record, there are still those who are skeptical of its results. Some try to explain away this remarkable level of achievement by claiming that Noble attracts students who are already higher achieving when they arrive. But the data make clear that Noble performance is the result of what happens after students arrive as freshmen. Looking at the current senior class, if one compares ACT-aligned Explore scores from the fall of 9th grade to those in the spring of 11th grade, the average Noble student moved from a 9th grade score of 15.0 to a score of 20.3. At Noble Bulls Prep, the gains are even more dramatic:&#160; average student scores go up by 7 points in those two and a half years. For comparison, the average growth among students at non-selective CPS schools is less than 3 points.&#160; This means that the average student at Noble’s Bulls campus makes more than twice the gains of his or her peers at a district-run school. This is an astounding accomplishment, one that cannot be explained away with the tired ‘creaming’ argument.</p>
<p>Noble’s impact is not simply about test scores. Noble exists to make college a reality for more students, many of whom will be first-generation college graduates. The majority of their students come from predominantly low-income households (89%) and are overwhelming African American or Latino (96%)—both above district rates. These populations have historically been underserved by Chicago Public Schools. In spite of this reality, 10 Noble campuses ranked in the top 20 for college enrollment last year.&#160; Noble’s UIC College Prep campus had the highest college enrollment rate of any public high school in Chicago—selective enrollment schools included—with 92% of graduates enrolling in college. Noble’s triumphs with their students are a win for the whole city of Chicago, as more students are being afforded a life of opportunity by attending a high-quality public high school.</p>
<p>Noble’s growth has not come at the expense of improved performance elsewhere. Instead, Noble has raised the bar for all schools. The overall ACT attainment in the city is now far higher than it was ten years ago, rising from 16.9 in 2004 to 18.2 in 2015. In fact, the tenth highest performing open enrollment high school today performs at a higher level than the best such school did ten years ago.</p>
<p>The district must adapt to a new reality: it is no longer acceptable to sit idly by while the students facing the greatest hurdles are left behind. Principal Marcey Sorensen from Roberto Clemente Community Academy noted as much when she acknowledged, “The only way we can compete is to be better.” It’s easy to poke holes in Noble’s theory of change vested in principals, teachers, and school culture, but the focus of the discussion should be student outcomes. Nearly 20 years of Noble education have taught us all one thing: students will rise to meet our expectations if we build schools and supports around the certainty of their success.</p>
<p>Andrew Broy is president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. Broy&#160;is&#160;a former public school teacher and civil rights lawyer.</p> | Noble has raised bar for all schools | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/noble-has-raised-bar-for-all-schools/ | 2016-02-17 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Understaffing, rising staff turnover and increased workloads are the key complaints in the petition, which asks for a meeting between union representatives and management to review and resolve the issues.</p>
<p>“I’ve been getting signatures since Thursday, and I’ve not had anybody not sign it,” said Debbie Adams, who represents service and maintenance workers in NM 1199 of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees.</p>
<p>In the past, people have been afraid to sign petitions or take part in other union actions, but the response this time is different, she said. “They’re so understaffed, so overworked, so burned out, they really do believe something has got to happen,” Adams said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Hospital administrators have not seen a copy of the petition and were not aware of it, hospital spokesman Arturo Delgado said Monday evening.</p>
<p>“Our staffing council continues to work with the union on goals we agreed on and continues to move forward,” he said.</p>
<p>The petition comes about a year after contentious contract negotiations between the hospital and the union in which some of the same issues -including staffing levels – were at issue.</p>
<p>The petition states, among other things: “The increased patient loads with cuts in staff are leading to more medical mistakes and patient falls. Management is creating a hostile work environment for employees by demanding them to do two peoples’ job, while supplying less of what they need to do their job.”</p>
<p>Sharon Argenbright, a nurse at Christus St. Vincent and union vice president, said the nursing staff levels look good on paper, but claimed the hospital is not meeting the levels set in its own staffing plan.</p>
<p>Also, she said, support staff has been cut so, while nurses have been added in some areas, the help they used to receive for basics such as dressing, bathing and feeding patients has been cut.</p>
<p>The hospital is making up shortfalls by hiring expensive traveling nurses, from 25 to 30 in May to 105 this month, she said, saying she got those figures from management.</p>
<p>In a major medical-surgical unit, 20 percent of the shifts in a two-month period were short of the staffing plan, Argenbright added.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The turnover rate is atrocious at this hospital,” said Dianne Harris, staff representative for all three bargaining units. She said she knows three nurses who left in the past three weeks because they felt hampered in offering the quality of care patients needed, she said.</p>
<p>Harris said she put together the petition with input from workers. “Higher-up management needs to know that people are not supporting what their decisions are,” she said.</p>
<p>With the number of certified nursing assistants cut, some patients are not getting their meals on time, are being awakened and dressed as early as 4-5 a.m. so workers can cover all patients on the unit, or aren’t getting their medications on time, said Yolanda Contreras, a district organizer for the union.</p>
<p>She said some 800 workers at Christus St. Vincent are represented by the union.</p>
<p>The petition says, “The staff cannot go on like this for much longer without some remediation of the ongoing staffing and system problems.”</p>
<p>“There’s no laziness going on,” said Adams. “Everyone is busting their patooties to make sure the services are provided.”</p> | Union: 221 Sign Christus Petition | false | https://abqjournal.com/112204/union-221-sign-christus-petition.html | 2012-06-12 | 2 |
<p>Since the odds now favor a government shutdown, it’s time to figure out what a shutdown would and would not mean. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/government-shutdown-impact-97546.html?hp=lh_b1" type="external">Politico</a> offers this guide from the Associated Press, which seems largely devoid of the <a href="http://powerline.wpengine.com/archives/2013/09/the-associated-press-goes-to-bat-for-the-democratic-party.php" type="external">AP’s usual pro-Democrat spin</a>.</p>
<p>A shutdown would not affect the delivery of mail or of Social Security and Medicare benefits. The airports would remain up and running with no impact on air safety traffic control. Travel visas and passports would still be issued and our embassies would stay open (barring another terrorist threat that scares President Obama into closing some of them).</p>
<p>Federal courts would operate as usual for about ten days. After that, there would be furloughs, but cases still would be heard. The Food and Drug Administration would continue with federal meat inspections and handle high-risk recalls.</p>
<p>The military would continue to function normally. However, the pay checks of servicemen and women would be delayed. And about half of the Defense Department’s would be furloughed, according to AP.</p>
<p>The VA would continue to offer its services to veterans. Thus, veterans would still be able “to visit hospitals for inpatient care, get mental health counseling at vet centers or get prescriptions filled at VA health clinics.” And “operators would still staff the crisis hotline and claims workers would still process payments to cover disability and pension benefits.”</p>
<p>So what services would be halted or impaired?</p>
<p>All national parks would be closed (I’ve pushed my weekly fall visit to Shenandoah Park up to today). So would the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo here in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, the high tourist season is over.</p>
<p>On the health front, no new patients would be accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, but current patients would continue to receive care. Medical research at the NIH would be disrupted. According to AP, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be severely limited in spotting or investigating disease outbreaks, from flu to that mysterious MERS virus from the Middle East.”</p>
<p>The Head Start program would feel some impact immediately and more as time went on. It’s not clear that, in the short run, any centers would have to close.</p>
<p>Food stamps would still be doled out and school lunches and breakfasts would continued to be served. However, AP says that something called the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children “could shut down.”</p>
<p>The federal loan process would be affected. Action on government-backed loans to small businesses would be suspended (polling shows, however, that a plurality of small business owners favor Republicans in the showdown debate). The Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees about 30 percent of home mortgages, wouldn’t underwrite or approve any new loans during the shutdown. And “many low-to-moderate incomes borrowers and first-time homebuyers seeking government-backed mortgages could face delays.”</p>
<p>My takeaway is that a relatively brief shutdown probably wouldn’t cause enough pain or inconvenience to cause widespread outrage, although the mainstream media will do its best to gin it up. A prolonged shutdown would be <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/government-shutdown-2013-economy-97541.html?hp=f3" type="external">quite another matter</a>.</p> | A government shutdown primer | true | http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/09/a-government-shutdown-primer.php | 2013-09-30 | 0 |
<p>Greta Van Susteren suddenly left Fox News on Monday after 14 years.</p>
<p>Brit Hume will now host her show “On the Record” at the 7PM time slot starting on Tuesday and through the election. It is unknown if Fox News will change their schedule after the election.</p>
<p />
<p>Greta provided an explanation on her Facebook page:</p>
<p />
<p>From <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/294570-greta-van-susteren-to-leave-fox" type="external">The Hill</a>:</p>
<p>“As one of the best political analysts in the industry, Brit is the ideal choice to host a nightly political program while the most dynamic and captivating election in recent history unfolds,” Abernethy and Shine said in a joint statement.</p>
<p>“Having Brit at the helm of this show will enable FOX News to continue on track to have its highest-rated year even as the network dominates the cable news landscape.”</p>
<p>Hume, who serves as the network’s senior political analyst, said he was “honored” to be asked to take over the show.</p>
<p>“I am happy to take on this assignment for the balance of this extraordinary election,” he said in a statement.</p>
<p>“My FOX News colleagues have set a high standard for political coverage which I’ll do my best to uphold.”</p>
<p>The news comes on the same day that Vanity Fair reported that Fox News will settle with Gretchen Carlson for $20 million over her sexual harassment lawsuit against former CEO Roger Ailes. CNN Money <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/06/media/greta-van-susteren-leaving-fox-news/index.html" type="external">reported</a> that Van Susteren “had been seeking to renegotiate the terms of her contract” when Carlson’s allegations surfaced.</p> | Greta Van Susteren Leaves Fox News, Says “Has Not Felt Like Home” | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/09/greta-van-susteren-leaves-fox-news/ | 2016-09-06 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p>Recently, President Barack Obama let America know just how anti-police he and his administration is. Beyond using the Justice Department to harass police departments for supposed discrimination, now he’s calling on officers to choose to be less safe… by wearing softer equipment and uniforms!</p>
<p />
<p>This is outrageous! As Brian Kilmeade of Fox News explained to host Megyn Kelly (below), Obama believes officers should have “softer looking” uniforms, instead of the hard riot hear our officers need to handle intense situations, such as the recent violence in Baltimore, Maryland.</p>
<p>Kilmeade explained that Obama thinks that police officers are “making things worse” when they show up to inner city communities wearing military-style equipment and riot gear.</p>
<p>“They’re concerned about the helmet. They’re concerned about the shield. It’s sending the wrong message,” Kilmeade stated. “I used to think from the civilian point of view that that would be a reason not to riot, because the police were ready and ready to act.”</p>
<p>Obama commissioned a review of the equipment programs last year after protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the shooting death of an 18-year-old black man by a police officer.</p>
<p>Kilmeade told Megyn Kelly that this is “unbelievable” and that if he were a police officer, he wouldn’t show up to the next riot.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/05/21/barack-obama-wants-police-officers-have-softer-looking-uniforms" type="external">Fox News</a></p>
<p>In addition, the new policy prohibits police stations from buying things such as armored vehicles, grenade launchers, and large caliber weapons and ammunition. Obama doesn’t care that criminals already have far worse equipment… He is determined to disarm the police!</p>
<p />
<p>Watch the latest video at &lt;a href="http://video.foxnews.com"&gt;video.foxnews.com&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is FURIOUS at Obama’s suggestion, <a href="http://www.fop.net/servlet/display/news_article?id=6119&amp;XSL=xsl_pages%2fpublic_news_individual.xsl&amp;nocache=12269357" type="external">and issued a vicious statement</a>:</p>
<p>A series of recommendations made by the Law Enforcement Equipment Working Group creates a list of equipment that is prohibited and a list that is “controlled” and agencies seeking to acquire this equipment would be forced to take additional steps, making it a more arduous process.</p>
<p>The FOP was very disappointed that the “controlled” equipment list identified protective gear like anti-ballistic shields and helmets as well as armored vehicles, as this will make these defensive purchases much more difficult to obtain. Similarly, some less than lethal technologies have also been put on the “controlled” equipment list.</p>
<p>A quick glance at the litany of organizations that were contacted by the Working Group shows very clearly that the input and feedback provided by the Fraternal Order of Police and other law enforcement groups was drowned out as the changes announced today are not in line with our positions on these programs.</p>
<p>All of us know that this issue is not really about equipment. We ought not to be distracted by thinking the problem is with the types of equipment or how the equipment is procured. Instead, we need to focus on better command decision-making at the local and State level with respect to how and when the equipment is deployed in the field. This, and of course appropriate training for the officers who are directed to use the equipment, is critical.</p>
<p>The men and women of our local police stations risk their lives every day to keep our families safe. They deserve our respect, and taxpayers should provide them with the equipment they need to do their jobs.</p>
<p />
<p>Do you oppose Obama’s anti-police agenda? Please leave us a comment and tell us what you think!</p>
<p /> | What Barack Obama Just Asked Police to Do Is OUTRAGEOUS! (VIDEO) | true | http://thepoliticalinsider.com/what-barack-obama-just-asked-police-to-do-is-outrageous-video/ | 2015-06-01 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said Wednesday that his officers wouldn't rest until the gunman was captured in the fatal shooting of a 4-year-old girl on Interstate 40 on Tuesday afternoon.</p>
<p>The community didn't have to wait long for a break in the case.</p>
<p>Carol Lee, of the FBI, and Chief Gorden Eden, speak to the media about the fatal shooting of 4-year-old Lilly Garcia. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>A little more than an hour after Eden's afternoon news conference, officers arrested a man in connection with the road rage incident that killed Lilly Garcia, who turned 4 in mid-September.</p>
<p>APD and New Mexico State Police investigate the scene of a road rage shooting on westbound I-40 near Unser on Tuesday. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Celina Espinoza, a department spokeswoman, said Tony Torrez, 31, was arrested without incident near Central and Sunset on Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Torrez later confessed to the shooting, Espinoza said.</p>
<p>He has been charged with an open count of murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, assault with the intent to commit a violent felony, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, child abuse, child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence. He is being held on a $650,000 cash-only bond.</p>
<p>"Everyone that was involved is breathing just a little bit better with a sigh of relief, because this is appearing to wrap up the way we were hoping it would," said Tanner Tixier, a department spokesman, after Torrez's arrest.</p>
<p>Espinoza said an anonymous caller told police on Wednesday they knew who had shot Lilly. The caller provided detectives with Torrez's name.</p>
<p>Tixier said officers watched Torrez get into a grayish-green Lexus sedan and drive to a parking lot near Central and Atrisco. They pulled him over and he was taken into custody shortly before 4 p.m.</p>
<p>Eden had said officers believed the shooter was driving a maroon or dark red Toyota four-door sedan - possibly a newer model Corolla or Camry - with a spoiler on the trunk, dark tinted windows and a gray University of New Mexico plate.</p>
<p>Friends and family have started at #JusticeforLilly hash tag on Facebook for 4-year-old Lilly Garcia. (Facebook)</p>
<p>Although Torrez was driving a Lexus when he was arrested, Tixier said at the time that investigators believe the red Toyota was at the Westgate house. It's unclear if officers found it there.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>During the news conference, Eden said Lilly's father picked her and her 7-year-old brother up from school Tuesday and got on Interstate 40 at Rio Grande.</p>
<p>Espinoza said Lilly's father told police he tried to exit the freeway at Coors when a maroon or red Toyota Camry or Corolla cut across traffic forcing him out of his lane.</p>
<p>"The two drivers exchanged words when Torrez pulled out a gun and shot at the red truck driven by Lilly's father," Espinoza said.</p>
<p>Lilly was hit at least once in the head.</p>
<p>"It was a road rage that resulted in murder," Eden said.</p>
<p>A Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office deputy saw the Garcias' car on the side of the road and pulled over to help.</p>
<p>A driver who was on the road just after the shooting called 911, saying an adult was holding a child in his arms on the side of the interstate. Police released a recording of the 911 call after the news conference.</p>
<p>"It looks like some sort of medical emergency, it's not an accident," the caller told a dispatcher. "There's an adult holding an unresponsive child."</p>
<p>TORREZ: Allegedly shot, killed child</p>
<p>Lilly died at the hospital.</p>
<p>Tixier said both officers and paramedics who tried to help her were shocked by the shooting.</p>
<p>"It was traumatic for them, they saw a 4-year-old little girl with a severe gunshot wound that she died from," Tixier said. "It was one of the worst codes they ever had to undertake."</p>
<p>Shortly after Lilly died, Chief Eden implored the public to call police with leads. They did.</p>
<p>Eden said the department was flooded with tips, and Wednesday morning police released the suspect's description and a description of his car. The city, FBI and Crime Stoppers offered $26,000 in reward money.</p>
<p>Tixier said he didn't know yet if someone would be collecting the reward money.</p>
<p>Eden said the New Mexico State Police, U.S. Marshals Service, New Mexico Department of Corrections, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigations helped search for the suspect and his vehicle. Carol Lee, the special agent in charge of the Albuquerque division of the FBI, said her agents opened their own investigation and are assisting APD.</p>
<p>Eden said officers and the community are grieving for Lilly along with her family.</p>
<p>"This is a horrific time for this family, the tragic loss of little 4-year-old Lilly well before her time," he said.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Man charged with murder in 4-year-old's slaying | false | https://abqjournal.com/663184/family-of-4-year-old-girl-fatally-shot-set-up-go-fund-me-account.html | 2015-10-21 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Here’s a last minute reprieve sure to make oil and gas companies scream: the Bush administration’s controversial auction of Utah’s public lands is going forward as scheduled on Friday, but with a major hitch. Environmentalists mounted a last ditch legal and PR campaign to stop the administration from leasing more than 100,000 acres of land near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon—and on Thursday night they bought themselves a bit more time.</p>
<p>Under terms negotiated by environmental groups, sources tell me, the Bureau of Land Management can hold the auction but can’t issue the leases for 30 days. That means the agency can collect the payments, but it can’t cash the checks. In the meantime, a federal judge will hear a case filed by environmental groups, which are asking the leases to be invalidated.</p>
<p>Five environmental groups, including the <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/081217.asp" type="external">National Resources Defense Council</a> and the Wilderness Society, joined in the suit. Utah’s most famous greenie, actor Robert Redford, also entered the fight, calling the Bush administration “ <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11254084" type="external">morally criminal</a>” for announcing the lease sale on Election Day and bypassing standard courtesies of public participation.</p>
<p>After putting out calls and emails to several sources, asking for comment on Friday’s lease sale, I heard back from one irate BLM veteran who said in no uncertain terms that the Interior Department has placed the interests of industry firmly above those of the public. Dennis Willis, a BLM manager in Utah who has worked for the agency for 30 years, told me he plans to retire effective January 2. For this reason, he was especially forthcoming in an email, which is worth excerpting at length:</p>
<p>What can I say that has not already been said? Just more of the same from a Department of the Interior that has no sense of ethics and no moral compass. It is like we are playing in some reality game show where deceit is just part of the game. Not good behavior for an organization that is managing the national heritage in trust for the public… Right now, BLM would make an omelette with California condor eggs if the oil and gas industry asked for breakfast. Everything including people, places, flora, fauna, art and history are mere impediments to energy production and most importantly corporate profit.</p>
<p>As for the matter at hand – the Christmas Sale. The worst and most offending parcels have been deferred. They won’t be on the auction block this time. Absent some change to the recently approved RMPs, they will go up again – if not in the next 4 or 8 years, sometime. At least for this Christmas, most of the Nine Mile and Desolation Canyon parcels can remain part of our wild heritage. The sick, perverted bastards have no concept of heritage. The archaeology of Nine Mile Canyon? Who cares, it’s an impediment. We used to call abandoned, unreclaimed wells as “orphan wells.” In current BLM speak, they are “Legacy Wells.” We are leaving one hell of a legacy for future generations to deal with.</p>
<p>The industry is spinning the situation as usual. The auction, says one flack for the <a href="http://www.ipams.org/media/media.php" type="external">Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States</a>, “comes after the BLM spent seven long years updating the Resource Management Plans in an open and public process, in an open and public process in which all stakeholders…including environmental groups and the National Park Service, and others, had multiple opportunities to comment.”</p>
<p>But we’ll call that bluff: <a href="/news/feature/2008/09/exit-strategy-party-favors.html" type="external">As I reported in September</a>, those resource management plans, heavily slanted towards oil and gas interests, were rushed to the printers in the closing months of the Bush Administration.</p>
<p>Since then, the National Park Service complained loudly and publicly about not being consulted by BLM when the acreage near Canyonlands and Arches was put up for sale.</p>
<p>That triggered a storm of protest, prompting the BLM to scale back its original leasing plan from 360,000 acres of public land to 164,000 acres. “It’s a little like someone telling you they’re going to rob only part of your house,” US Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/18/MN2314Q17A.DTL" type="external">told</a> the Associated Press Wednesday.</p>
<p /> | Bush Administration to Oil and Gas Industry: Merry X-Mas | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/12/bush-administration-oil-and-gas-industry-merry-x-mas/ | 2008-12-19 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Comcast may be best known as a cable company, but it is banking on remote-controlled door locks and cameras as well as other "smart-home" offerings to accelerate its growing home security business.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The push to diversify comes at a time when more U.S. consumers who are dropping traditional cable television packages, or cutting the cord, in favor of cheaper alternatives. Comcast and its rivals want to offer more services in the home to increase their revenues and create more loyal customers.</p>
<p>Comcast is already seeing traction at its Xfinity Home security service, which launched in 2012. Subscribers have doubled to more than 1 million in the last two years, according to quarterly results released in July.</p>
<p>But selling security services to consumers, which Comcast says is more than a $9 billion market, is just part of the strategy.</p>
<p>The company is now turning to home automation - think standalone features such as cameras and thermostats that can be controlled remotely - for consumers who reside in apartments and condominiums.</p>
<p>The U.S. smart-home market, which encompasses devices ranging from door locks to sprinkler systems that can be programmed to various schedules, is expected to grow to $47 billion annually by 2020, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Daniel Herscovici, senior vice president and general manager of Xfinity Home, told Reuters that the home security industry offered certain advantages such as low churn, or attrition, since consumers rarely switch providers unless they move. The cost of signing up customers is low since Comcast is able to sell to people who also subscribe to broadband and cable services.</p>
<p>The company first focused on home security because it was too early in 2012 to talk about connected devices, he said. Now it is also turning to automation.</p>
<p>“We haven’t reached anywhere near our full potential," he said in an interview.</p>
<p>Overall, the home security and automation market is a natural extension for broadband providers who are looking for additional ways to leverage its existing infrastructure and workforce to sell more services to new and existing customers. Comcast has said that 55 percent of Xfinity Home customers become new Comcast subscribers.</p>
<p>But Comcast and others still face a shrinking market in traditional pay-TV services. Six of the largest U.S. pay TV firms lost a total of 723,000 customers in the second quarter in what JPMorgan analysts called the industry's worst ever quarterly results during the period.</p>
<p>The big question for Comcast is whether a monthly subscription model - one that provides a recurring revenue stream beyond the initial sale of equipment - can take off in a market where consumers have the option of paying once for items like cameras without the extra perks that come with an additional fee, analysts said.</p>
<p>Comcast aims to find out with a pilot program in three markets to offer a video camera bundled with its Xfinity Internet for an additional $10 a month, a company spokesman said. Customers can purchase up to six cameras for $99 each and then pay the monthly fee, which includes installation, cloud storage for video recordings and the ability to create and share video clips.</p>
<p>The offer is meant for condo owners and apartment dwellers who don’t need full home security systems, but still want to keep an eye on where they live. If successful, the pilot will likely expand this year, a Comcast spokesman said.</p>
<p>Vivint, a home automation company owned by Blackstone Group, says it has succeeded selling monthly service plans for $39.99 and $49.99. The product includes features such as an app that allows consumers to control all smart-home functions from their phone, and professional monitoring that dispatches emergency services when needed and customer support.</p>
<p>Part of the appeal to the consumer is that they can select devices to be integrated into a single system via a curated platform, Vivint executives said.</p>
<p>According to Strategy Analytics, Comcast has roughly 10 percent of the market for interactive security, the category of home security that offers remote monitoring and arming of systems, compared to market leader ADT Corp's 20 percent.</p>
<p>Comcast plans to get a bigger slice of that market share. In March, it bought out its supplier of home security equipment, IControl Networks Inc, for an undisclosed amount. The deal gives Comcast more control over research and development capabilities and provides it with a new revenue stream as a wholesaler to other companies in the market.</p>
<p>Blake Kozak, principal analyst at market research firm IHS, said Comcast has an advantage because it is already in the home, with services like a remote control that responds to voice commands and the X1 set top box.</p>
<p>"They have a lot of things going for them in terms of creating an ecosystem for the consumer and getting them to engage,” he said.</p>
<p>(Editing by Anna Driver and Edward Tobin)</p> | Comcast builds out 'smart home' strategy as cable shrinks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/29/comcast-builds-out-smart-home-strategy-as-cable-shrinks.html | 2017-08-29 | 0 |
<p>Without Congressional support on this issue, Obama is likely to claim authority under the original Iraq war resolution that authorized attacks on al-Qaeda and related groups who were involved in the World Trade Center attacks. ISIS is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lawmakers-weigh-giving-obama-authority-to-wage-war-against-islamic-state/2014/09/10/59f057b0-38fd-11e4-8601-97ba88884ffd_story.html?hpid=z1" type="external">not related to al-Qaeda:</a></p>
<p>The United States will lead a “broad coalition” to defeat the Islamic State through air strikes and support for military partners on the ground, President Obama will announce Wednesday night.</p>
<p>In a prime-time speech, Obama will tell the country that the offensive against the militant group will not involve combat troops, but rather a “steady, relentless effort” that involves air power and backing for partner forces, according to early excerpts provided by the White House.</p>
<p>“So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” Obama will say, using an acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group.</p>
<p>Obama will make clear to a war-weary public that the offensive will not resemble the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but rather other, more covert, missions against terrorists.</p>
<p>“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” Obama will tell the nation.</p>
<p>Update: Full Text of the President's speech:</p>
<p>My fellow Americans – tonight, I want to speak to you about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.</p>
<p>As Commander-in-Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people. Over the last several years, we have consistently taken the fight to terrorists who threaten our country. We took out Osama bin Laden and much of al Qaeda’s leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We’ve targeted al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, and recently eliminated the top commander of its affiliate in Somalia. We’ve done so while bringing more than 140,000 American troops home from Iraq, and drawing down our forces in Afghanistan, where our combat mission will end later this year. Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer.</p>
<p>Still, we continue to face a terrorist threat. We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today. That’s why we must remain vigilant as threats emerge. At this moment, the greatest threats come from the Middle East and North Africa, where radical groups exploit grievances for their own gain. And one of those groups is ISIL – which calls itself the “Islamic State.”</p>
<p>Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not “Islamic.” No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state. It was formerly al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, and has taken advantage of sectarian strife and Syria’s civil war to gain territory on both sides of the Iraq-Syrian border. It is recognized by no government, nor the people it subjugates. ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.</p>
<p>In a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide. In acts of barbarism, they took the lives of two American journalists – Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.</p>
<p>So ISIL poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East – including American citizens, personnel and facilities. If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region – including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies. Our intelligence community believes that thousands of foreigners – including Europeans and some Americans – have joined them in Syria and Iraq. Trained and battle-hardened, these fighters could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.</p>
<p>I know many Americans are concerned about these threats. Tonight, I want you to know that the United States of America is meeting them with strength and resolve. Last month, I ordered our military to take targeted action against ISIL to stop its advances. Since then, we have conducted more than 150 successful airstrikes in Iraq. These strikes have protected American personnel and facilities, killed ISIL fighters, destroyed weapons, and given space for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim key territory. These strikes have helped save the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children.</p>
<p>But this is not our fight alone. American power can make a decisive difference, but we cannot do for Iraqis what they must do for themselves, nor can we take the place of Arab partners in securing their region. That’s why I’ve insisted that additional U.S. action depended upon Iraqis forming an inclusive government, which they have now done in recent days. So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat.</p>
<p>Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.</p>
<p>First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists. Working with the Iraqi government, we will expand our efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so that we’re hitting ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense. Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.</p>
<p>Second, we will increase our support to forces fighting these terrorists on the ground. In June, I deployed several hundred American service members to Iraq to assess how we can best support Iraqi Security Forces. Now that those teams have completed their work – and Iraq has formed a government – we will send an additional 475 service members to Iraq. As I have said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission – we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq. But they are needed to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence and equipment. We will also support Iraq’s efforts to stand up National Guard Units to help Sunni communities secure their own freedom from ISIL control.</p>
<p>Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I again call on Congress to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters. In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria’s crisis once and for all.</p>
<p>Third, we will continue to draw on our substantial counterterrorism capabilities to prevent ISIL attacks. Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts to cut off its funding; improve our intelligence; strengthen our defenses; counter its warped ideology; and stem the flow of foreign fighters into – and out of – the Middle East. And in two weeks, I will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council to further mobilize the international community around this effort.</p>
<p>Fourth, we will continue providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians who have been displaced by this terrorist organization. This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who are at grave risk, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities. We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.</p>
<p>This is our strategy. And in each of these four parts of our strategy, America will be joined by a broad coalition of partners. Already, allies are flying planes with us over Iraq; sending arms and assistance to Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian opposition; sharing intelligence; and providing billions of dollars in humanitarian aid. Secretary Kerry was in Iraq today meeting with the new government and supporting their efforts to promote unity, and in the coming days he will travel across the Middle East and Europe to enlist more partners in this fight, especially Arab nations who can help mobilize Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria to drive these terrorists from their lands. This is American leadership at its best: we stand with people who fight for their own freedom; and we rally other nations on behalf of our common security and common humanity.</p>
<p>My Administration has also secured bipartisan support for this approach here at home. I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL. But I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together. So I welcome congressional support for this effort in order to show the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger.</p>
<p>Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. And any time we take military action, there are risks involved – especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions. But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years. And it is consistent with the approach I outlined earlier this year: to use force against anyone who threatens America’s core interests, but to mobilize partners wherever possible to address broader challenges to international order.</p>
<p>My fellow Americans, we live in a time of great change. Tomorrow marks 13 years since our country was attacked. Next week marks 6 years since our economy suffered its worst setback since the Great Depression. Yet despite these shocks; through the pain we have felt and the grueling work required to bounce back – America is better positioned today to seize the future than any other nation on Earth.</p>
<p>Our technology companies and universities are unmatched; our manufacturing and auto industries are thriving. Energy independence is closer than it’s been in decades. For all the work that remains, our businesses are in the longest uninterrupted stretch of job creation in our history. Despite all the divisions and discord within our democracy, I see the grit and determination and common goodness of the American people every single day – and that makes me more confident than ever about our country’s future.</p>
<p>Abroad, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists. It is America that has rallied the world against Russian aggression, and in support of the Ukrainian peoples’ right to determine their own destiny. It is America – our scientists, our doctors, our know-how – that can help contain and cure the outbreak of Ebola. It is America that helped remove and destroy Syria’s declared chemical weapons so they cannot pose a threat to the Syrian people – or the world – again. And it is America that is helping Muslim communities around the world not just in the fight against terrorism, but in the fight for opportunity, tolerance, and a more hopeful future.</p>
<p>America, our endless blessings bestow an enduring burden. But as Americans, we welcome our responsibility to lead. From Europe to Asia – from the far reaches of Africa to war-torn capitals of the Middle East – we stand for freedom, for justice, for dignity. These are values that have guided our nation since its founding. Tonight, I ask for your support in carrying that leadership forward. I do so as a Commander-in-Chief who could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform – pilots who bravely fly in the face of danger above the Middle East, and service-members who support our partners on the ground.</p>
<p>When we helped prevent the massacre of civilians trapped on a distant mountain, here’s what one of them said. “We owe our American friends our lives. Our children will always remember that there was someone who felt our struggle and made a long journey to protect innocent people.”</p>
<p>That is the difference we make in the world. And our own safety – our own security – depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation, and uphold the values that we stand for – timeless ideals that will endure long after those who offer only hate and destruction have been vanquished from the Earth.</p>
<p>May God bless our troops, and may God bless the United States of America.</p> | President Obama Addresses The Nation Tonight Over ISIS Plans | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/president-obama-addresses-nation-tonight | 2014-09-10 | 4 |
<p>Two weeks ago, an orca named Kasatka intentionally grabbed and pulled her trainer underwater twice-nearly killing him in the process. Kasatka is a performer for Sea World Adventure Park, San Diego. She is one of seven orca entertainers at the Southern California park. With operations in five other US locations, Sea World and Busch Gardens are owned by the Anheuser-Busch corporation. Indeed, as Susan Davis demonstrated in her <a href="" type="internal">Spectacular Nature</a> (1997), these flagship zoological parks are corporate enterprises: for-profit businesses.</p>
<p>According to a park official, the Sea World orcas perform as many as 8 times per a day, 365 days a year. The Kasatka attack happened during the final daily show. As for the performances themselves, they are finely choreographed and composed of several acts. Each is highly complex in its routines and challenging in its stunts. These shows require skill, patience, labor, and hours of weekly practice. The orcas are, in every sense, performers and entertainers.</p>
<p>A considerable amount of money is invested in such flagship zoological ventures. These parks are vacation destinations. There are hotels, restaurants, amusement rides, merchandise, and special events. There are adventure camps for students. There are animal exhibitions and performances. There are extensive breeding and academic-related research operations. In truth, the global trade in exotic-animals is a multi-million dollar a year industry. The Russian government, for example, just resumed its trade in captive orcas. This is not surprising, as a single orca can be worth up to 1 million dollars. Conservation is big business.</p>
<p>Yet much more is happening at these zoos and aquariums than just production and profit, more than just performers, spectacle, and captive audiences. For Kasatka’s action on that day was not a unique incident. It was the third such public act of violence involving herself. In 1999, she attempted to bite this same trainer during a show. He only escaped with all his limbs fully intact by quickly jumping out of the pool. After this event, Kasatka was sent, as stated by a park spokesman, “back for some additional training and behavior modification”-for in 1993, there was a similar bite-attempt. In fact, two years earlier, her father, a performer at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada, killed his trainer during a show. Resistance at zoological institutions occurs far more often than most people know.</p>
<p>The acts of resistance that often attract the most attention are violent forms. Arms are bitten off. Flesh is torn. Bones are crushed. Humans are killed. The most famous recent event occurred in 2002 in Las Vegas during a Siegfried and Roy show. Montecore, a 6 year veteran of stage, refused to lie down during a routine, and, when his trainer bristled, the white tiger clamped down on his arm. After being repeatedly hit on the head with a microphone, Montecore then grabbed him by the neck. His trainer would survive but only barely. Others have not been so lucky.</p>
<p>In 1876, for example, Babe the elephant was born in India. He began his working life as a performer in an American circus. But, after stomping a trainer to death, he was sold to a zoo in Toledo, Ohio. There, three years later, he killed another trainer with his tusks. So resistant did this elephant become, his final obituary read: “Animal which became a Killer and Outlaw, executed following a Paralytic Stroke.” In fact, according to a 1991 report of the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, 18 trainers were killed by elephants over a 20-year period in North America-thereby achieving the unique distinction of having the highest per capita morality rate of any employment profession.</p>
<p>Another attention-grabbing act of resistance is escape. In 1922, an unidentified ape attempted to flee from the Toledo Zoo. Apparently, the ape was once an adroit bicycle-rider in a vaudeville show but was later sold to the zoo. During the escape itself, the ape was confronted by the head keeper and his armed men. After beating and stabbing the ape with clubs and pitchforks, the keeper decided to shoot the animal in the head, as this was the ape’s third breakout. Escapes were so common in the early days of the zoo that the Toledo Blade printed a series of cartoon editorials: each depicting various animals running through the streets and causing havoc in the local Walbridge neighborhood. Contrary to what some readers might be thinking, time and progress have not slowed such actions.</p>
<p>In 2003, Little Joe, a gorilla at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, escaped his exhibition twice in a two-month period. Noting the 12-ft-wide, 12-ft-deep moat and electrified wires, officials had no idea how he accomplished it. At the Dallas Zoo a year later, Jabari-the gorilla-broke out of a containment that was, according to the zoo director, “among the best in the country.” As he said afterwards, “this blows our minds.” Over a one month period at the Los Angeles Zoo in 1997, twelve animals-a gorilla, snow leopard, howler monkey, four spider monkeys, and five colobus monkeys-escaped their exhibitions and made it onto zoo grounds. Sometimes, these animals can get even further. In 1960, a seal lion named Cyril fled the London Zoo in London, Ontario. Swimming fourteen days and traveling a distance of over four-hundred miles, he traversed the Thames river, St. Clair lake, Lake Erie, and the Maumee river. He was eventually captured in Ohio.</p>
<p>The most common forms of resistance, however, are those particularly unspectacular in their methods. Cheetahs who refuse to do anything. Tigers who ignore commands. Elephants who fake ignorance. Orcas who rebuff new tasks. Gorillas who break equipment. Chimpanzees who throw their shit (“scatological humor,” as zoo officials call it) at visitors. One researcher marveled at how skillful the monkeys at the Los Angeles Zoo were at hitting visitors with “clods of earth” from great distances. Then there was Stuffie, the first chimp ever produced from artificial insemination. Shot to death in 1987 while attempting to escape, she was infamous at the Toledo Zoo for holding milk in her mouth for hours on end: waiting patiently until her trainers came close enough so that she could spit it out in their faces.</p>
<p>Zoological institutions have always acknowledged this resistance. Indeed, if a keeper or trainer desires to obtain an adequate, timely, and profitable amount of labor from such creatures, there always has to be some degree of negotiation involved. After the latest Kasatka attack, one whale-researcher admitted that “sometimes they’re [the orcas] not happy with their situation.” “Some mornings they wake up not as willing to do the show as others.” “If the trainer doesn’t recognize it’s not a good day, this will happen.” Resistance could mean a lessening of duties and a day off. For Kasatka, she was sent right back to work the following day, but all routines directly involving trainers were cut out. Or this resistance could result in something worse.</p>
<p>For Babe, it brought further beatings and the sawing off of her tusks. It brought armed-guards, more chains, and a new stronger pen. For Little Joe, his escapes brought about a new cell with triple-layered glass walls, a woven-steel cap, and 24-hour video surveillance. For Jabari, it meant being shot to death by the police. Many parks have now created specialized response teams: armored and armed. In fact, for both Babe and Little Joe, their acts of resistance initiated serious discussions among zoo officials concerning the use of the death penalty.</p>
<p>By 1826, the London Exeter Exchange Menagerie had enough of Chunee the elephant. He had broken his last enclosure, ignored his last command, killed his last keeper. Depicted by a famous engraining, Chunee was executed via firing squad. Parallel was the fate of Topsy, the Coney Island elephant. Fed up with his continued “temper,” including killing a visitor who fed him a lit cigarette, he was sold to the Thomas Edison Laboratory in 1903. Recorded by motion-pictures, Topsy was electrocuted to death.</p>
<p>For the elephants at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, their resistance negotiated a different outcome. In 1993, responding to increasing injuries and deaths among trainers, the park (following the lead of several others) decided to completely change its training methods. Instead of applying the use of physical force and punishment, only positive methods of reinforcement were now to be used. Moreover, they switched to a “protected-contact” system. Either the keepers would be protected at all times by a permanent barrier, or the elephants themselves would be placed in restraining devices.</p>
<p>As for those creatures who just refuse to do anything, they pose a most particular and serious problem for zoos. Remember, these institutions make a considerable profit from entertaining visitors, and the sight of a monkey sitting quietly behind a bush is not entertaining. There is, in fact, a sizable amount of contemporary research done by zoos seeking to discover why animals become anti-social or act lethargic when confronted by visitors. The ultimate purpose of these “behavioral enrichment” studies is to lessen resistance and increase production. Animals need to perform. They need to play the part of the beast. They need to act voraciously. They need to run rapidly, fly swiftly, and swim excitedly. They need to roar and screech loudly. The methods used to obtain such reactions range from the construction of “naturalistic” exhibitions, to the utilization of toys and hidden treats, to experimentation with pharmaceutical drugs. None of these techniques, however, guarantees success. During the 1980s, for example, Busch Gardens designed and installed an expensive, long, narrow structure for their cheetahs. It was supposed that these creatures would readily use this structure to exhibit and highlight their speedy running abilities, consequently attracting vast audiences and their money. The cheetahs, though, refused to use it.</p>
<p>In response to the latest Sea World attack, the park and the AAZA went into a self-preservation mode. Two points were made repeatedly. First, animals are better off in zoos than living autonomously. Second, zoos educate the general public. Neither argument addressed the actual issue at-hand: what about Kasatka’s actions. When pressed, their response was careful and measured. Whether born in captivity or not, these creatures are still “wild,” and thus subject to unprovoked and unusual acts of recalcitrant behavior. Ironically, this is the same reasoning used (although in a critical form) by the Humane Society of the United States. This is a top-down view.</p>
<p>In order to see the world from Kasatka’s perspective, three facts need to be considered. First, there are no recorded incidences of orcas “in the wild” attacking humans unprovoked. This is an institutional problem. Second, Kasatka and other performers have a long history of attacking trainers. Resistance in zoos and aquariums, in truth, is anything but unusual. Third, the zoological institutions themselves have to negotiate with their entertainers to extract labor and profit. Indeed, animal performers have agency, and zoos have always (privately, at least) acknowledged this. Therefore, the next time you hear about an orca attack, don’t dismiss it from above: “Animals will be animals.” But instead, look from below: “These creatures resist work, and can occasionally land a counterpunch or two of their own.”</p>
<p>JASON HRIBAL is co-author of <a href="" type="internal">Cry of Nature</a>. can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Kasatka, the Sea World Orca | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/12/14/kasatka-the-sea-world-orca/ | 2006-12-14 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The University of New Mexico’s second-year women’s basketball coach officially added a player Monday who won’t suit up in Lobo colors until 2018-19. Aisia Robertson, a 5-foot-8 guard who played at Kansas the past two seasons, committed to transfer to UNM, where she’ll have two seasons of eligibility remaining.</p>
<p>Robertson, who signed a Grant-in-Aid agreement, can practice with the Lobos next season but must sit out games under NCAA transfer rules. She’ll become eligible when the program figures to need her.</p>
<p>Guards Cherise Beynon and Tesha Buck, both primary ball-handlers, will be seniors in 2016-17.</p>
<p>“That’s why we’ve really been looking at transfers,” Bradbury said. “From a standpoint of positions, talent and depth, our roster is a lot closer to where we want it for next season. But Aisia can play multiple positions and will give us flexibility when Cherise and Tesha are gone. The timing should be really good.”</p>
<p>Robertson, who was a top-100 recruit coming out of Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, Calif., played in every game during her two seasons at Kansas. She started 22 games as a freshman but came off the bench in 28 of 30 contests last season. Robertson averaged 4.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 1.0 steals for the Jayhawks in 2016-17.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>She decided to transfer after the season and visited UNM’s campus in late April. She announced her decision to join the Lobos via Twitter on Sunday.</p>
<p>Robertson’s Twitter post showed her sporting a New Mexico uniform with the word “Committed,” and the hashtag “#GoLobos.”</p>
<p>“Her athleticism is what sold us,” Bradbury said. “She can score, she’s an elite defender and she’s long for her height. Aisia’s game fits our system really well.”</p>
<p>Robertson’s commitment leaves UNM with one open scholarship for next season.</p> | UNM women get commitment from ex-Jayhawk | false | https://abqjournal.com/996548/unm-women-get-commitment-from-ex-jayhawk.html | 2 |
|
<p>AP/Olivier Doulier</p>
<p />
<p>Update: The New York Post <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/02/28/16m-trump-penthouse-sells-to-exec-with-ties-to-china/" type="external">briefly</a> interviewed Angela Chen who said she “was ‘not comfortable’ commenting on her purchase and how it could potentially help her business.”</p>
<p>Last week, Donald Trump’s company sealed its first big post-inaugural real estate transaction, selling a $15.8 million penthouse to a Chinese-American business executive who runs a company that touts its ability to exploit connections with powerful people to broker business deals in China.</p>
<p>New York City property records <a href="https://a836-acris.nyc.gov/DS/DocumentSearch/DocumentImageView?doc_id=2017022300040002" type="external">show</a> that Xiao Yan Chen, the founder and managing director of a business consulting firm called Global Alliance Associates, purchased the four-bedroom, six-bathroom condo in Trump’s Park Avenue high-rise on February 21. Before taking office, Trump signed documents removing himself from the board of directors of Trump Park Avenue LLC, the entity that sold the unit, but he remains the LLC’s owner.</p>
<p>Chen, who also goes by Angela Chen, did not return multiple calls and emails requesting comment. Her company bills itself as a “boutique business relationship consultancy” for US firms seeking to do business in China. “For a select clientele,” the firm says that it “facilitates the right strategic relationships with the most prominent public and private decision makers in China.”</p>
<p>“As counselors in consummating the right relationships—quite simply—we provide access,” the company’s website <a href="http://gaa.lucita.org/about_overview_access.shtml" type="external">claims</a>. “Establishing a network of credible and proprietary relationships, known by the Chinese as ‘ghanxi,’ is the single most important aspect of initiating and sustaining a successful business venture in China.” A connection with Trump—even a fleeting one—could only help in the ghanxi department.</p>
<p>According to Chen’s bio on the Global Alliance website, she previously worked for Prudential Insurance, helping the company establish a private banking group in China, where she “developed and managed the Group’s high net worth private client base.” Before that, Chen’s biography says she worked at Merrill Lynch, where she ran the China Futures Trading Desk and counted as clients numerous state-owned companies, such as Sinochem, Ocean Shipping Group, and China National Nonferrous Metals.</p>
<p>Until Chen’s purchase, none of Trump’s major real estate properties had reported any major sales since he became president. The condo was never publicly listed for sale, although Chen lists her current address as a smaller apartment in the Trump Park Avenue building. (It’s unclear whether she owns that unit, which was last purchased in 2004 by an entity called Lancer Trust.)</p>
<p>According to Zillow.com, the penthouse unit Chen purchased last week has <a href="https://www.zillow.com/homes/502-Park-Avenue-PH-28,-new-york,-ny_rb/" type="external">an estimated value of $14.3 million</a>. Other penthouse units in the building have sold for comparable sums. One fetched <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-sells-another-condo-at-trump-park-avenue-1452700630" type="external">$21 million</a>.</p>
<p>The sale agreement for Chen’s penthouse was signed by Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, whom Trump tapped to serve along with his sons on the three-person panel that will run his company while he serves as president. Weisselberg and a lawyer for Chen did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p /> | Trump Just Sold a $15.8 Million Condo to a Consultant Who Peddles Access to Powerful People | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/donald-trump-sells-park-avenue-penthouse-angela-chen/ | 2017-02-27 | 4 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>An Obama ad features video of McCain walking toward the camera with a group of people in power suits, as the narrator says, "the lobbyists, running his low road campaign." None of the people pictured are lobbyists, however.</p>
<p>The ad also repeats a misleading claim that McCain favors "billions in tax breaks for big oil and drug companies." But McCain’s tax policy doesn’t target those industries. He calls for lowering the corporate tax rate for all companies.</p>
<p>Barack Obama’s campaign has been very forthright about criticizing John McCain for having lobbyists work for his campaign. Yet a new Obama TV ad, released Aug. 11, gives a false picture&#160;– quite literally&#160;– of who exactly they are.</p>
<p>&lt;iframe width="480" height="390" src="https://video.factcheck.org/play/hIUWgeOEIQI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[TET ]</p>
<p>Obama for America Ad: "Embrace"</p>
<p>Narrator: For decades, he’s been Washington’s biggest celebrity. And as Washington has embraced him, John McCain hugged right back.</p>
<p>The lobbyists, running his low road campaign. The money, billions in tax breaks for big oil and drug companies but almost nothing for families like yours. Lurching to the right then the left, the old Washington dance, whatever it takes. John McCain: a Washington celebrity playing the same old Washington games.</p>
<p>Obama: I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message. [/TET]</p>
<p>The ad features a shot of McCain walking with a serious-looking group of people in power suits as the narrator says, "The lobbyists" – dramatic pause – "running his low road campaign." But none of the folks pictured are actually lobbyists. Not even former lobbyists. And two of them are Secret Service guys.</p>
<p>The Washington Times‘ Christina Bellantoni <a href="http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/bellantoni/2008/Aug/11/lobbyist-lover-or-just-walking-down-the-street/" type="external">noted the discrepancy</a> in the ad Aug.&#160; 11, identifying those pictured as, from left to right, "an unidentified Secret Service agent, eBay executive Meg Whitman, McCain, another Secret Service agent, traveling press aide Brooke Buchanan and Greg Wendt, a San Francisco Democrat and volunteer adviser who travels with McCain." The McCain campaign confirms that those are the identities of the people pictured.</p>
<p>Granted these smartly dressed folks may well fit the bill at a Hollywood casting call for "lobbyists." But they’re not lobbyists in real life. Whitman is well known as the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/01/24/ebay-meg-whitman-tech-enter-cz_eb_0124whitman.html" type="external">recently retired</a> eBay CEO with a lengthy <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=229136&amp;symbol=EBAY.O" type="external">business career</a>. She’s a campaign co-chair. Wendt’s <a href="http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/060713/corpleaders.shtml" type="external">career</a> has been in mutual fund management. Both are <a href="http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/fundraisers.htm" type="external">McCain fundraisers</a>.</p>
<p>The Obama campaign justifies the ad’s statement that "the lobbyists" are running McCain’s campaign by citing various press reports about McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, who is a former telecommunications lobbyist; senior adviser Charlie Black, who was chairman of the lobbying firm BKSH &amp; Associates and who <a href="http://www.bksh.com/bksh-names-new-chairman.html" type="external">recently stepped down to work for McCain</a>; and several other McCain advisers that have worked as lobbyists. McCain said in February that while lobbyists serve as his advisers, "they’re honorable people, and I’m proud to have them as part of my team," <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23295787/" type="external">as reported by the Associated Press</a>. In May, the McCain camp announced a new conflict-of-interest policy saying that no one working for the campaign could be a currently registered lobbyist. There are now former lobbyists in the campaign.</p>
<p>When we asked the Obama camp about its use of an image lacking any actual lobbyists, former or otherwise, spokesman Tommy Vietor told us, "I think everyone knows which lobbyists are running his campaign."</p>
<p>If so, everyone should also know they’re not pictured in this ad.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The Obama ad also expands upon a misleading claim <a href="" type="internal">we’ve written about before</a>. It says that McCain supports "billions in tax breaks for big oil and drug companies." (Last week, the claim was only about oil companies.) Either way, McCain’s proposal is actually to lower the corporate tax rate for all companies, not just those in unpopular industries. – by Lori Robertson</p>
<p>Birnbaum, Jeffrey H. and John Solomon. “ <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/30/AR2007123002848_pf.html" type="external">McCain’s Unlikely Ties to K Street</a>.” The Washington Post, 31 Dec. 2007.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Meier, Barry and Kate Zernike. “ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/us/politics/20mccain.html?pagewanted=1" type="external">McCain Finds a Thorny Path in Ethics Effort</a>.” The New York Times, 20 May 2008.</p>
<p>Bellantoni, Christina. “ <a href="http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/bellantoni/2008/Aug/11/lobbyist-lover-or-just-walking-down-the-street/" type="external">Lobbyist lover or just walking down the street?</a>” The Washington Times blog, 11 Aug. 2008.</p>
<p>Associated Press. “ <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23295787/" type="external">McCain defends lobbyist ties</a>,” 22 Feb. 2008.</p>
<p>“ <a href="http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/fundraisers.htm" type="external">Fundraising Disclosure: Fundraisers Who Are Raising $50,000 and More for the McCain Campaign, or for 2008 Joint Fundraising Committees (which include the Campaign and Party Committees)</a>.” JohnMcCain.com, accessed 12 Aug. 2008.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Not Pictured Here | false | https://factcheck.org/2008/08/not-pictured-here/ | 2008-08-12 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The outcome of the vote was never in doubt, even as lawmakers spent a second consecutive day arguing the merits of a departure that the bitterly divided country approved in a June referendum.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The margin of Wednesday evening’s roll call, 498 to 114, gives May a convincing mandate as she prepares to launch divorce talks with the EU by the end of next month. Once that is done, Britain will have two years to negotiate the terms of its departure.</p>
<p>Wednesday’s vote was necessitated by a British Supreme Court ruling last week that Parliament, not the prime minister, should have the final say on whether Britain leaves the EU.</p>
<p>May’s government had vigorously contested that notion, pursuing appeals in a bid to keep the departure, known as Brexit, from becoming entangled in parliamentary debate.</p>
<p>Her reluctance stemmed from simple arithmetic: Although the British public voted 52 percent to 48 percent to quit the EU, most members of Parliament had favored staying in.</p>
<p>Even so, many pro-remain lawmakers calculated that the political cost of blocking Brexit would be high, and they chose to align themselves with the public’s will.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>May had the resounding support of her ruling Conservative Party, which has been divided over Britain’s EU membership for decades. She also won backing from opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party, though a significant number of Labour members bucked their leadership by voting no on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Those of us who campaigned for remain know that Brexit is to happen,” said Stella Creasy, a lawmaker who was among the Labour rebels. Voting no, she said, was “the only chance to send the prime minister back to the drawing board.”</p>
<p>The Scottish National Party – the third-largest in the House of Commons – and the Liberal Democrats also lined up against Wednesday’s legislation. But they came nowhere near stopping the bill, and amendment proposals intended to influence May’s position in the exit talks also fell short.</p>
<p>The bill was written as simply as possible to minimize debate and maximize May’s latitude for negotiation. In a mere two clauses, it gives May permission to trigger Article 50, the never-before-used mechanism for leaving the EU.</p>
<p>The public “voted leave because they wanted to leave,” said Conservative lawmaker David Warburton, urging his colleagues to back the vote.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The bill still needs approval from the upper chamber of Britain’s Parliament, the House of Lords, but that is considered a formality.</p>
<p>Despite the lack of suspense in Wednesday’s vote, lawmakers staged a passionate debate over some 16 hours, with more than 150 members weighing in.</p>
<p>May has signaled she intends to push for a clean break from the EU, with Britain leaving behind the common European market for goods and services as well as the customs union that regulates members’ trade within and outside the bloc.</p>
<p>The prime minister has insisted that Britain intends to transform its ties to Europe, not sever them. But European leaders have taken a hard line, saying that Britain will not be able to cherry-pick the best parts of EU membership while shunning the responsibilities.</p>
<p>May has also annoyed European allies by seeming to cozy up to President Donald Trump. While other European leaders took a cautious approach to a leader seen by many on the continent as erratic and politically toxic, May flew to Washington within a week of Trump’s inauguration and proclaimed her desire to strike a trade deal with the new administration.</p> | British lawmakers give Theresa May the go-ahead to trigger Brexit talks | false | https://abqjournal.com/940733/british-lawmakers-give-theresa-may-the-go-ahead-to-trigger-brexit-talks.html | 2 |
|
<p>Across Germany, car buyers are rushing to the nearest showroom. New-car registrations soared by almost 40 percent last month.</p>
<p>That surge comes just as Europe’s largest economy has been battered by the slide in global demand, with February industrial production falling 20 percent from a year ago, and unemployment on the rise. Germany's gross domestic product, meanwhile, is expected to shrink this year by 4.5 to 7 percent.</p>
<p>But even in a world economic crisis, this car-loving nation knows when to say yes to a government hand-out.</p>
<p>In January the German government launched a car scrapping bonus scheme, which encourages consumers to trade in cars nine years or older for a more energy efficient new vehicle by giving each buyer 2,500 euros ($3,200).</p>
<p>Initially the government allocated some $2 billion to the scrapping scheme but it was not prepared for the consumer’s response: By the beginning of April, 1.2 million Germany had applied for the bonus — twice as many as the government could pay for.</p>
<p>So bowing to pressure from carmakers and consumers, Berlin has more than tripled the size of the scheme to 5 billion euros ($6.5) until the end of this year, enough to cover up to 2 million new cars.</p>
<p>“The extra cash was Germany’s contribution to offset the fall in exports through more domestic demand,” says Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Germany's economics minister. It’s also an unspoken admission by Berlin that its fiscal stimulus of $80 billion over two years might not be enough to stem the economic downturn.</p>
<p>So far the bonus has helped mainly the small car sector, especially Volkswagen, Opel (GM’s German subsidiary) Renault and Ford.</p>
<p>But luxury carmaker Audi has also profited. “We’ve sold 13,000 more cars so far because of the scrapping bonus,” said Audi spokesman Juergen de Graeve. "The scrapping bonus is like a vitamin boost for the whole industry."</p>
<p>With every seventh job in Germany linked to the automotive industry, the measure seems popular.</p>
<p>But not all in the industry love it.</p>
<p>Luxury carmakers BMW and Daimler have complained the scheme helps their mass market rivals. Dieter Zetsche, the chief executive of Daimler, maker of Mercedes Benz, has argued the scrapping bonus will only lead to a bigger sales slump down the road.</p>
<p>Some critics even see the scheme as a gift by German taxpayers to foreign automakers, or merely as an unfair subsidy that will only create new government debt. Used-car dealers outright hate the scheme.</p>
<p>And the country’s Green Party has called the scrapping plan environmentally unfriendly and economically nonsensical. It argues for stricter CO2 controls, not more cars.</p>
<p>But the scheme has become the single most popular initiative taken by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. Her coalition partner — the left leaning SPD (Social Democratic Party)&#160;— claims Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the party’s candidate in this year’s general election, had the idea for the scrapping bonus in the first place. It hopes that come September, those two million car buyers will translate into two million votes.</p>
<p>For the moment the numbers tell the story according to the ACEA, the pan-European auto industry body. Germany is the only country in Western Europe to have seen growth in its car sales in the first quarter. France, Italy and Spain — which have more modest versions of car scrapping schemes — all saw their sales fall.</p>
<p>So heads up, Britain. Amid a drop of almost 30 percent in its first quarter car sales, the U.K. government is expected to reveal its own "cash for clunkers” program in its April 22 budget.</p>
<p>Karoline Durr is a writer based in New York and Berlin. She has covered European business and economics for CNN, CNN International and Bloomberg.</p> | Take my car, please | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-04-22/take-my-car-please | 2009-04-22 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>U.S. Air Force pallbearers fold Old Glory as a mourners watch Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, at the memorial service for fallen U.S. Air Force Capt. William DuBois at Rifle High School in Rifle, Colo. DuBois was killed Dec. 1 when his F-16 jet crashed before he began the combat portion of his flight. (AP Photo/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Dean Humphrey)</p>
<p>RIFLE, Colo. — Hundreds of people turned out to say goodbye to an Air Force pilot from Colorado who was killed on a deployment to fight Islamic State extremists.</p>
<p>Some residents and law enforcement officers stood on Interstate 70 overpasses waving flags as the procession carrying Capt. William DuBois’ casket traveled from Grand Junction to Rifle, Colorado for his funeral service Sunday. The Glenwood Springs Post Independent ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1yRWJkC" type="external">http://bit.ly/1yRWJkC</a> ) reports that about 900 people, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, attended the funeral at Rifle High School, where DuBois graduated in 2003.</p>
<p>The newly married 30-year-old was assigned the 77th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. Besides winning “top gun” flying awards, Col. Paul Murray told mourners that DuBois had a “once in a generation” gift for leadership at a young age.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Information from: Post Independent, <a href="http://www.postindependent.com/" type="external">http://www.postindependent.com/</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Hundreds say goodbye to Air Force pilot in Rifle | false | https://abqjournal.com/512690/hundreds-say-goodbye-to-air-force-pilot-in-rifle.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>RUSH:&#160; It’s exactly what I said was gonna happen on Friday, folks.&#160; The arrogant condescension of the American left is now on display for everybody to see it.&#160; People that used to pay no attention to it, people that used to not even notice it, people that never knew what liberalism is are now getting a front-row seat to finding out exactly who they are and what they are and what they do and how they do it.&#160;</p>
<p>Greetings, my friends.&#160; Great to have you.&#160; I hope you had a great weekend.&#160; Rush Limbaugh here behind the Golden EIB Microphone for yet another three-hour excursion into broadcast excellence.&#160;</p>
<p>My first observation about the Hamilton episode with Mike Pence, I don’t think the cast of this show has the slightest idea who Alexander Hamilton is.&#160; I frankly think they know their lines and that’s it.&#160; And that’s typical liberalism.&#160; They know the lines that have been written for ’em, but they don’t know the man, they don’t know the history, they think they know what they’re talking about.&#160; They think they’re authorities. Just like an actress who will play a farm wife in a movie in a Great Depression farm era will be called to the Senate to testify about dire straits on the American farm, when she had no idea.&#160; She played it in a movie.&#160;</p>
<p>Well, these clowns in Hamilton are playing a role.&#160; They have their lines, their sing their lines in their songs, and that’s it.&#160; And they think they are experts. And then you add to it that they are liberals, and that makes them think they are experts and then you add the arrogance and condescending nature of liberalism and you have a totally offensive manner of behavior.&#160;</p>
<p>One of the especially hilarious parts of the cast of Hamilton lecturing Mike Pence was all their talk of diversity and how scared they are because, you know, they’re all gay or they’re all transgender or they’re all lesbian and Mike Pence and Trump are coming for ’em and we don’t want to be put in the camps, please don’t put us in the camps!&#160; They literally think this because this is how they’ve been educated, it’s how they’ve been taught. They really do think this stuff, folks.&#160; Just like they think the planet isn’t going to be habitable by the time they’re 65.&#160; I can’t emphasize this enough.&#160; They believe this stuff.&#160; But not only do they believe it, they think they’re the only ones who know it and that makes them experts in this stuff.&#160;</p>
<p>Now, their talk of diversity, I don’t know if you’ve heard this about this show, Hamilton, the producers of Hamilton got into trouble back in March because their casting call for an upcoming touring company specifically stated that they were seeking nonwhite performers.&#160; They did not want anybody but people of color in the cast in one of the touring companies of this show.&#160; It’s against the rules of Actors Equity.&#160; It’s against state law.&#160; It’s against federal law.&#160; But somehow everybody has forgotten about that.&#160; Somehow it was never investigated by the Department of Justice, Obama, or anybody else.&#160;</p>
<p>I once appeared on Broadway.&#160; Tell you a little story.&#160; The Will Rogers Follies were playing on Broadway. It was a musical and it had as part of the show Wiley Post, the ghost of Wiley Post, who was the pilot, he was Will Rogers’ great friend and pilot.&#160; They died in a plane crash.&#160; And during the play the ghost of Wiley Post, seated in the audience, would stand up and repeat a couple of lines, and the actor playing Will Rogers would react, and it was a revolving door.&#160; The people they asked to play the ghost of Wiley Post sitting in the crowd, sitting in the audience, it changed every night.&#160; It was an honor.&#160;</p>
<p>And I was invited to be the ghost of Wiley Post one night.&#160; Mac Davis was the star as Will Rogers.&#160; In fact, every time I go out to play golf in Los Angeles I run into Mac Davis on the golf course.&#160; Whenever he sees me, “Hey, Wiley!”&#160; That’s how he knows me, as Wiley.&#160; We’ll sit down and have a drink and he’ll talk to me about Wiley.&#160; (laughing)</p>
<p>Anyway, it went fine.&#160; I stood up and I repeated my lines during the show.&#160; The audience always looked.&#160; It was up in the balcony where the ghost of Wiley Post sat, and the audience every night looked up to see who was portraying the ghost of Wiley Post.&#160; So after the show I went backstage, one of the people with the play had invited me backstage to meet people, and it was very icy back there, which I thought would be the case.&#160; I mean, it’s a New York theater crowd, very icy, very cold back there, but nobody said anything.&#160; They just looked at me and harrumphed or looked away or looked irritated or whatever.&#160; But the guy shepherding me through it was a great guy, very nice guy, introduced me to a few people.</p>
<p>I walked out the stage entrance, the private entrance the actors and actresses used to get in and out of the theater.&#160; And there were four or five members of the cast waiting for me when I exited the back door.&#160; And they started yelling, “We didn’t want to go on stage tonight knowing you were here.&#160; We do not agree with anything you say.&#160; We think you want to hurt us.”&#160;</p>
<p>Now, I am just totally taken aback by this.&#160; Remember, this is the early nineties, so it’s many, many moons ago, and there was one member of the cast, a woman, started pooh-poohing, “Oh, shut up. Take it somewhere else and leave us alone.”&#160; She happened to be a big fan and was talking to me out there, and she started laughing at them, which made them even angrier.&#160; But it was five or six of them, they had waited out there for me to exit to make that point.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />So this is actually nothing new.&#160; But it’s instructive, folks.&#160; It’s entirely informative as to just what the left is, who the left is and everything about them that I have spent the last 29 years, going on 30, attempting to explain to people. And now the job has gotten much easier because by virtue of the election, these people have become more visible and more marginalized, and I do think it’s a positive.&#160;</p>
<p>I think it’s a net positive for these people to behave as they’re behaving and to be seen by people who in the normal course of events may not even think about people like this and the way they act.&#160; They just pay it no attention.&#160; Now you can’t miss it.&#160; So in many ways it’s a positive.&#160; In other ways you wish it would it wouldn’t happened.&#160; I mean, you wish this kind of division didn’t exist in the country, but it does and it has for quite a while.&#160;</p>
<p>The actor who spoke to Pence, Brandon Victor Davis, said, “We hope this show has inspired you.”&#160; You know what the show’s about?&#160; I mean, it’s Hamilton.&#160; It’s about a vice president who shoots a political rival and gets away with it, Burr, in a duel.&#160; Do you know that Alexander Hamilton was an immigration hawk?&#160; I wonder if the people in this cast have any idea who they are lionizing and celebrating.&#160; This guy’s Donald Trump.&#160; Alexander Hamilton was a huge nationalist.&#160; He did not like states’ rights.&#160; He wanted a massive federal government.&#160;</p>
<p>Thomas Jefferson and John Adams didn’t like the guy at all.&#160; They were agrarians, they were farmers, they believed in states’ rights.&#160; Alexander Hamilton, he didn’t want anybody getting in the country he didn’t personally approve of.&#160; I mean, it’s uncanny.&#160; Well, he, yeah, he founded the New York Post.&#160; The guy was amazing.&#160; He was born out of wedlock.&#160; He was born out of wedlock in the Caribbean.&#160; He grew up in Nevis and St. Kitts.&#160; He had a — what would you call it in modern day terms, came from a broken family. It was in the Dutch West Indies where he grew up.&#160;</p>
<p>He went to what were called the 13 colonies, he wanted to go to the 13 colonies to make his fame and fortune.&#160; Do you know the Federalist Papers, the vast majority of the Federalist Papers are the best thing we have to interpret the Constitution.&#160; The Federalist Papers, the short version of them, short definition, the Federalist Papers are where the founders explained their thoughts on practically every aspect of the Constitution, including what kind of person they envisioned as president. They get into things like the character of the executive and so forth.&#160; It’s very, very instructive.&#160; Alexander Hamilton wrote the vast majority of it, James Madison the other.&#160; James Madison is considered the father of the Constitution.&#160;</p>
<p>But Alexander Hamilton was a profoundly unique individual, and I don’t think he is at all the kind of guy the people in these cast would celebrate if they literally knew who he was.&#160; I think they know their lines and that’s it. They’re dangerous this way.&#160; Leftists are dangerous.&#160; They’re actors and they portray roles and they learn lines, and they think they are then experts. I mean, you see it still today.&#160;</p>
<p>The entertainment media will go out and interview some actor that’s just portrayed somebody famous, and that actor becomes an expert.&#160; And we get to hear from the actor what they did to dig deep and learn the character and immerse themselves into it.&#160; And as such they become, within our media, experts on either the character they’re portraying or the subject line or storyline of whatever, the movie or TV show they are appearing in.&#160;</p>
<p>But Alexander Hamilton was a primary influence on the U.S. Constitution.&#160; He was the founder of the nation’s financial system.&#160; He founded the Federalist Party.&#160; He founded the Coast Guard.&#160; He founded the New York Post.&#160; He was the first secretary of the Treasury under the first president, George Washington.&#160; He was the author — he was the economics guru — for George Washington’s first administration.&#160; He was responsible…</p>
<p>The states were in considerable debt at the founding, and it was Alexander Hamilton who took the lead in having the federal government fund their debt.&#160; He established a national bank, a system of tariffs, and he was very friendly with Britain in terms of trade, which angered the French, and it angered a bunch of his fellow Founding Fathers.&#160; There was no love lost for the U.K — well, it wasn’t the U.K. For Britain.&#160; But Hamilton did.&#160; He believed in a vigorous president, a vigorous executive branch.&#160;</p>
<p>National bank, national support for manufacturing, strong military.&#160; He was not so much big on the states having independent power.&#160; But this is the kind of thing that made our founding and makes our founding just absolutely — I don’t know — fascinating to people that get into it.&#160; And any rate, I submit that these clowns on Broadway don’t even know who the guy really is, and they preach to Pence coming in.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>But the thing about this, folks, is when they say they’re afraid, “you scare us,” it’s hard to understand, and it’s easy to say, “Well, they’re just making a political statement.” But, in fact, I think there is a tremendous amount of fear on the part.&#160; You look at college campuses and this whole snowflake phenomenon and the safe spaces areas and the, “Gee, I don’t want to have anything controversial that I don’t agree with be spoken. I don’t want to have to hear it.”&#160; All that’s real.&#160; They have been protected.&#160;</p>
<p>Like <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/warming-to-trump/article/2607212" type="external">Daniel Hannan</a>, the member of Parliament from the U.K. (a noted conservative and has become a famous face on American TV), has a piece, and he basically thinks that the modern-era left attitudinally is nothing more than a bunch of six- and seven-year-old children.&#160; Now, they’re not children when it comes to what their capabilities are, determining the action they take and the mean-spirited extremism they exhibit and so forth.&#160; Attitudinally, they’re kids.&#160; He cites as an example all these anti-Trump protesters marching in front of Trump Tower.&#160;</p>
<p>“Donald Trump, go away! Donald Trump go home! Donald Trump, go away!”&#160;</p>
<p>He says they really don’t expect Trump to come out and quit.&#160; They don’t expect Trump to leave. So what are they doing?&#160; They’re acting out their childhood impulses.&#160; “Donald Trump, go away! Donald Trump…”&#160; They’re just a bunch of kids, except they’re far more dangerous than kids because they’re adults, but they have attitudes and mentality that’s almost stunted as six- or seven-year-olds, because of the very protective way they’ve been raised and the lies that they have accepted, both in the news and the anecdotal lies that are passed around from people to people, person to person.&#160;</p>
<p>And it’s a challenge.&#160; The thing is, we’ve all been worried that we were losing the country to this group of people.&#160; We really were.&#160; I mean, the last eight years everybody I talked to, myself included, asked, “Have we really lost the country?&#160; I mean, is this…?” And we haven’t.&#160; We’re not even close to it, as it turns out.&#160; Well, that’s not the best way to say it, ’cause we could lose it at any time.&#160; The forces are out there trying to cause that to happen.&#160; But we have not. Remember when I kept telling you, “I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic,” and I told you it’s not time to panic?&#160;</p>
<p>It’s never time to panic with this bunch because they were never really ever the majority.&#160; It was just an illusion that we happened to believe, or that we feared was close to becoming reality.&#160; At any rate, you want a great example of the…? I just think it’s general stupidity.&#160; I think the left is everything you’re hearing people say. (chuckling) Oh, Alexander Hamilton, by the way? Get this. You know who invented the Electoral College?&#160; Alexander Hamilton.&#160; I’d forgotten to mention this. Yeah, Alexander Hamilton is the father of the Electoral College.&#160;</p>
<p>In fact, Alexander Hamilton was one of the people begging George Washington to accept the role of king.&#160; Alexander Hamilton believed in monarchy.&#160; He thought monarchy was one of the most effective ways of government. As long as you had a morally decent person as the monarch, it was the best way to go.&#160; And Washington refused. He said, “We didn’t fight the war…” These are not his words, but he essentially said, “We didn’t fight the war and all this to make somebody king here.&#160; We just got through opposing a king and saw what tyrants become.”&#160; But, yeah, he was a big aristocrat.&#160;</p>
<p>He loved the aristocracy, Hamilton.&#160;</p>
<p>He wanted them to be… I mean, everything these people on stage profess to hate right now, he was there either creating, inventing, or founding.&#160; That’s why I say, “I don’t think they have the slightest idea who the guy really was,” and here they are highly acclaimed.&#160; And it’s a good show from what I hear.&#160; I can’t go to shows like this ’cause (sigh) I can’t hear them.&#160; My deafness.&#160; I mean, I can hear it, but it doesn’t make any sense to me what I am hearing.&#160;</p>
<p>Anyway, try this headline: <a href="http://heatst.com/world/feminist-snow-plowing-system-brings-stockholm-to-a-standstill/" type="external">“Feminist Snowplowing System Brings Stockholm to a Standstill.”</a>&#160; They’re just stupid, folks.&#160; They’re entertaining if you stand back — entertainingly humorous, stupid — except they do destructive and damaging things, as I shall point out when we get back.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; Democrat actors have been attacking Republican elected officials in theaters, I don’t know what, since 1865. The first known instance of a radical leftist Democrat actor attacking a Republican elected official was John Wilkes Booth assassinating Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, 1865.&#160; So these guys at Hamilton are following in what I’m sure they consider to be a rich tradition.&#160; But the condescension of thinking that they are telling the vice-president-elect how to do it, how to be, what to think.</p>
<p>And the way Pence handled it…</p>
<p>When I first heard about this, I had not been… I didn’t get the whole story.&#160; I was first told about it that what happened was the actors had told Pence that they didn’t approve, they didn’t support him and that he scared them and that they were terribly afraid and that everybody’s terribly afraid.&#160; But nobody told me what Pence did.&#160; What Pence did… He didn’t say anything. He left the theater as he was leaving the theater, he looked to his son and said, “Son, that’s the sound of freedom,” meaning people can say what they want and everybody else can judge whether or not it’s in good taste or what have you.</p>
<p>But as I say, folks, in the end, it’s helpful that people are finally able now to see who these people have always been.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; Did I say Pence said to his son? It was to his daughter and her cousin. He said, “That’s the sound of freedom.”&#160;</p> | Trump Election Gives America a Front-Row Seat to See Liberalism on Display | true | http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/11/21/trump_election_gives_america_a_front_row_seat_to_see_liberalism_on_display | 2016-11-21 | 0 |
<p />
<p>WEDNESDAY, July 19, 2017 — New cancer drugs routinely cost $100,000 a year or more, and older cancer drugs are rising in price, too. Now, the American Society of Clinical Oncology has some suggestions for easing patients’ money woes.</p>
<p>The proposals include allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, legalizing the importation of drugs, and adopting bundled, or group, payment programs.</p>
<p>In the new policy statement, ASCO also says it supports creation of a panel of “stakeholders” in health care to determine the effectiveness of its proposals. Such a group might also outline a uniform approach for assessing the value of drugs.</p>
<p>“In what, undoubtedly, is one of the most difficult times in their lives, individuals with cancer should be focused on getting the best care possible, not worrying about financial strain on their families,” said Dr. Clifford Hudis. He’s CEO of ASCO, a leading group of cancer-care professionals.</p>
<p>“As cancer doctors, we’re accountable for ensuring our patients receive the right drug at the right time, but that alone isn’t going to rein in costs. We need our nation’s leaders to tackle the major drivers of patients’ cost burdens, including rising prices,” Hudis said in a society news release.</p>
<p>Any solutions must maintain patients’ access to care and encourage innovation, the policy statement says.</p>
<p>Patients with cancer are more than twice as likely to declare bankruptcy as those without cancer and nearly six in 10 cancer patients feel distressed about their finances during treatment. Many patients forgo or delay treatments as a result, the paper says.</p>
<p>Moreover, cancer care costs are expected to rise more than 25 percent between 2010 and 2020, with drugs the driving factor, ASCO noted.</p>
<p>“Drug pricing is clearly too complex and political to tackle without evidence-based solutions,” Hudis said. “We’re focused on finding out what works and what the potential downsides and unintended consequences might be with each intervention.”</p>
<p>Often the price of a new drug bears no relation to its effectiveness, the paper says. The society recommends that the U.S. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Food_and_Drug_Administration/" type="external">Food and Drug Administration</a> use “meaningful clinical outcomes” when assessing drug applications.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, ASCO believes there should be a real and consistent relationship between the benefits of a particular drug to patients and its cost,” the authors wrote.</p>
<p>The end goal of the proposals, Hudis said, is to “develop approaches that will protect patients from rising costs while improving care.”</p>
<p>More information</p>
<p>The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment" type="external">cancer treatment</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.</p> | Doctors' group offers ideas for easing cancer costs | false | https://newsline.com/doctors-group-offers-ideas-for-easing-cancer-costs/ | 2017-07-20 | 1 |
<p>LANDOVER, Md. (AP) -- Case Keenum threw touchdowns to four different receivers to build a big lead, and the NFC North-leading Minnesota Vikings won their fifth in a row Washington Redskins 38-30 Sunday despite two second-half interceptions.</p>
<p>With Teddy Bridgewater active for the first time since January 2016 after a devastating knee injury, Keenum was 21 of 29 for 304 yards and TD passes to Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, David Morgan and Jarius Wright. He was picked off on consecutive throws by D.J. Swearinger.</p>
<p>Thielen had eight catches for a season-high 166 yards.</p>
<p>Latavius Murray also ran for a score as five players got into the end zone for Minnesota (7-2), which was 8 of 12 on third downs. The Vikings won their first game out of the bye week for the second time in eight seasons as they try to avoid a repeat of the swoon that cost them a playoff spot last season.</p>
<p>Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins had three TDs - two rushing and one passing - and was 26 of 45 for 327 yards with an interception. The Redskins (4-5) failed to build off an upset victory at Seattle and now find themselves on an uphill climb in the wild-card race.</p>
<p>WHAT A CATCH</p>
<p>A day after being called up from the practice squad, second-year Redskins receiver Maurice Harris came up with a highlight-reel grab: a diving, one-handed catch for a touchdown on the opening drive. The 36-yard play originally was ruled an incompletion, but the Redskins challenged and the call was reversed on replay review.</p>
<p>This was Harris' first game action this season - he last played in January - and the score represented the first TD of his career.</p>
<p>VIKINGS CELEBRATE</p>
<p>The team that set the standard for group celebrations with a game of "Duck, Duck, Goose," pushed the bar higher when Diggs and Thielen leapfrogged teammates in the end zone after Thielen's 7-yard TD catch. Diggs was flagged earlier for leaping into the base of the crossbar, which even in the New Fun League isn't allowed.</p>
<p>INJURIES</p>
<p>Vikings: They played without DE Everson Griffen because of a foot injury. Griffen was the third player since the NFL began tracking sacks in 1982 to have one in each of his team's first eight games of the season.</p>
<p>Redskins: WR Ryan Grant was initially cleared of, and then ruled out with, a concussion. ... RB Rob Kelley left with an ankle injury in the first quarter. ... S DeAngelo Hall suffered a right knee injury late in the second quarter, pressing CB Kendall Fuller to play out of position. ... LB Will Compton left with a foot injury.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Vikings: Host the high-scoring Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in a game that could sort some order in the crowded NFC playoff picture.</p>
<p>Redskins: Visit the New Orleans Saints on Sunday in a game they now badly need to win given their upcoming schedule.</p> | Keenum, Vikings keep rolling by beating Redskins 38-30 | false | http://valleynewslive.com/content/sports/Keenum-Vikings-keep-rolling-by-beating-Redskins-38-30-457089703.html | 2018-10-07 | 1 |
<p>Recessions are not inevitable adjustments built into the clockwork of a modern economy.</p>
<p>Businesses no longer make products on long lead times and stumble into excess inventories of cars and appliances, triggering layoffs and pauses in consumer spending. Computer-aided supply chain management and tracking customer purchases permit businesses to better align what they make to what can be sold.</p>
<p>Recessions still happen, because of external shocks-natural disasters and political events-and errors of judgment and greed. Sadly, rocketing oil prices and the credit and housing meltdowns bear traits of the latter.</p>
<p>Since 2001, the trade deficit has doubled to more than $700 billion. Oil and consumer goods from China account for more than 80 percent of the gap, and how we finance these purchases has a lot to do with our current mess.</p>
<p>The Bush Administrations has done little to encourage serious energy conservation-it won’t endorse attainable improvements in home furnaces and mileage standards for automobiles.</p>
<p>The Chinese government aggressively intervenes in foreign exchange markets-about $500 billion a year-to keep the yuan inexpensive and Chinese goods cheap in U.S. stores. The Bush Administration refuses to do much about it.</p>
<p>Every time a manufacturing job leaves the Middle West for the Middle Kingdom, oil consumption goes up, as Chinese farmers move to cities and require more air conditioning and amenities of urban life.</p>
<p>The combination of gasoline gluttony and 11 percent growth in China has sent oil prices above $90 a barrel.</p>
<p>In 2007 the average price of imported oil was about $62 a barrel. Next year if it averages just $77, the increase would shave $72 billion, or 0.5 percent of GDP, off U.S. buying power.</p>
<p>To finance imports, Americans borrow and sell assets to foreigners. Saudi princes and the Chinese government have bought chunks of Citigroup, the Blackstone Group and U.S. bonds. Consumers access funds through mortgages and other loans bundled into bonds for investors.</p>
<p>Banks wrote many reckless adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs), bundled those into bonds, and paid Standard and Poor’s to assign those securities high ratings. Common are homeowners, who have refinanced five times in five years, owe six times their income, and drive a Lexus.</p>
<p>Each month, thousands of ARMs are resetting to higher rates, homeowners can’t make the payments and are defaulting on loans, banks are taking big hits on their balance sheets, and bond and credit markets are in turmoil.</p>
<p>Home prices are falling and credit is too expensive for worthy homeowners and sound businesses. Just a five percent drop in the value of existing homes translates into $95 billion annually in lost consumer spending.</p>
<p>Add to that the impacts of oil prices and tight credit on businesses, and overall spending could drop $250 billion or close to 2 percent of GDP. Add the usual multiplier effects-when the banker does not buy bread, the baker doesn’t buy flour, and the farmer gets stuck with his grain-and we could have a recession.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have been fairly agnostic about this prospect and should do more to avert disaster.</p>
<p>Near term, the Federal Reserve should further lower short-term interest rates to ensure sound businesses have access to credit at reasonable terms. As needed, it should buy 10- and 20-year Treasury securities to keep down long-term interest rates.</p>
<p>Treasury should organize, for immediate action by Congress or through the private sector, a three-year program to permit homeowners, who can make payments, to convert ARMs to fixed-rate 6.5 percent mortgages. That would require federal guarantees or subsidizing private insurance, and such intervention is usually not desirable, but the economy is in a crisis.</p>
<p>Longer-term, Treasury Secretary Paulson should prod necessary banking reforms. These include new management and business practices at bond rating agencies and getting rid of the off-book banks-structured investment vehicles invented by Citigroup and others that borrow in the short-term commercial paper market to make shaky ARMs. Federally charted banks that are not allowed such loose practices, and doing so off books smell of fraud.</p>
<p>Raising automobile efficiency to an average 55 mpg is not far fetched and could be accomplished sooner than 2030, as suggested by Senator Clinton.</p>
<p>Finally, if China insists on subsidizing U.S. purchases of yuan to finance exports, the U.S. government can tax conversion of dollars into yuan to ensure those exports are sold at market prices in the United States. Washington could use the revenue to pay off the bonds held by Peoples Bank of China.</p>
<p>PETER MORICI is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Avoiding a Recession | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/11/28/avoiding-a-recession/ | 2007-11-28 | 4 |
<p>Rep. Trent Franks defended the Trump administration’s policy towards North Korea, telling CNN’s “New Day” on Monday that Pyongyang’s defiance of the U.S. since the president’s “fire and fury” speech is not a failure of Donald Trump but reflects mistakes made by previous Democratic presidents.</p>
<p>When asked where is the success of Trump’s deterrence from his belligerent talk if since those remarks North Korea has fired at least two missiles over Japan for the first time in many years and tested perhaps its most powerful nuclear device ever, the Arizona Republican said “This is a kind of a brinksmanship situation.”</p>
<p>Franks, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said “The reality is that North Korea has been paying attention,” because previously Pyongyang made deals with former Presidents Bill Clinton on the nuclear front and Barack Obama on their missile capability in which they “gained tremendous compensation without having to dismantle their capability. And then they watched the Iran nuclear deal and, in that case, there was incredible compensation given.”</p>
<p>The congressman stressed that, based on those experiences, “North Korea is hoping to somehow bluff their way into greater compensation,” although “that, right now, they don’t want to fight the United States, but that capability exists.”</p>
<p>Franks insisted that “Our imperative objective must be to dismantle the North Korean capability. We have to do that, and I think that this president may be the one to do it. It’s unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation as we do right now. It represents a failed policy in the past.”</p> | Rep. Trent Franks Defends Trump Policy on North Korea | false | https://newsline.com/rep-trent-franks-defends-trump-policy-on-north-korea/ | 2017-09-18 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>In this Oct. 1, 2015, photo, Cambridge Springs Devils football player Kris Silbaugh ties his shoe before high school football practice in Cambridge Springs, Pa. Silbaugh, born without a left hand, is the team's starting wide receiver, punter and defensive back. (AP Photo/Joshua Replogle)</p>
<p>CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS, Pa. - The closer you get to Cambridge Springs High School football practice, the louder the cheers get.</p>
<p>"He's going all the way!" one coach yells after a receiver leaps above a defender, snatching the pigskin above a cornerback's head and sprinting to the end zone. The player is greeted by a chorus of kudos and applause. Catch after catch, No. 86 jumps, stretches his arms and ultimately blows by the Blue Devils defensive scout team.</p>
<p>"I have never coached anyone like him." coach Justin Grubbs said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Grubbs is talking about his starting wide receiver, punter and defensive back, Kris Silbaugh. Oh, and he was born without a left hand.</p>
<p>Silbaugh broke his northwestern Pennsylvania high school's receiving yards record this season, surpassing 915 yards for the year in a game versus nearby rival Saegertown.</p>
<p>"You just need extra focus." Silbaugh said. "You watch the ball closely all the way in."</p>
<p>During the day before homecoming, Silbaugh snagged the ball repeatedly on the practice field, absorbing the its impact with just five fingers. Every catch the high school senior makes is a circus catch.</p>
<p>The success is even more unlikely for a kid who's faced adversity on and off the field. Silbuagh was placed in foster care when he was 18 months old; he was adopted a short time later.</p>
<p>"I don't know who my birth parents are." Silbaugh said. "Maybe one day they can see that I've done something, that I've had success."</p>
<p>He's thriving in a situation that would break many kids. Silbaugh's current legal guardians, Frank and Mary Tipping, took him in when he was having issues with his adopted family.</p>
<p>"Very quickly you forget that he doesn't have a hand." Mary Tipping said. "He never asks for help."</p>
<p>He's also become a favorite son of Cambridge Springs, a former resort town about 25 miles south of Lake Erie. Posters of the receiver mark storefronts and lighting posts. He's the reigning homecoming king and on the honor roll. While he hopes to meet his birthparents one day, he's found a family in football.</p>
<p>"I feel I belong out there just as much as anyone else," Silbaugh said.</p> | One-handed Pennsylvania receiver is setting records | false | https://abqjournal.com/675353/one-handed-pennsylvania-receiver-is-setting-records.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>For decades, owning a PC meant putting up with inconvenient Windows updates that always seemed to take over your computer when you needed it most. The updates were necessary as they delivered security patches along with feature updates, but they were time-consuming and users had no control over when they happened. The update process was one that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) created in the days it dominated the computer market, before it had to worry about competing with Android tablets, Chromebooks, iPads, and iPhones.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Now, users have more choices for computing and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has changed how his company operates. The CEO, who took over in early 2014, has pushed out the old monopoly mentality and has instead created a new Microsoft that listens to what its consumers want.</p>
<p>One of the biggest things the company's customers told it they wanted was an end to unexpected updates tying up their computer at inopportune times. Microsoft has listened and starting with the upcoming Windows 10 Creators update, some major changes are being made to how Windows 10 gets updated.</p>
<p>Windows 10 started out user-friendly as it brought back the well-liked start menu. Image source: Microsoft.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"Prior to the Creators Update, Windows 10 made most of the decisions for you regarding when updates would be installedand didn't provide ways to tailor the timing to your specific needs," wrote Windows Service and Delivery Group Program Management Director John Cable in a <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/03/01/providing-customers-choice-control-creators-update/#4t3Qi66wDJF3HJHE.97" type="external">blog post Opens a New Window.</a>. "What we heard back most explicitly was that you want more control over when Windows 10 installs updates. We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time."</p>
<p>The Creators Update changes that by offering Windows 10 users three choices. The first option, which the company recommends because it will give users the latest security features in a timely fashion, is simply accepting the update when it's available. The second choice "Pick a Time," lets the user select when he or she wants the update with the ability to reschedule if the selected time is no longer convenient when it arrives. The third option, "Snooze," simply delays the update for three days.</p>
<p>"In addition, we are widening the 'Active Hours' time so Windows doesn't install an update at times when you want your device to be ready to use," wrote Cable, who also explained that the company has created a new tool designed to help people keep track of where their device stands. "If you decide to exercise more control over the update process, we've added a new icon to the Windows Update Settings page that makes it easier to verify that your device is up to date."</p>
<p>Here's what users will see when an update becomes available. Image source: Microsoft.</p>
<p>Under Nadella, Microsoft has become a more consumer-friendly company and this change removes a pain point that annoyed a lot of people. It's a smart effort that's in line with how the Windows maker has been operating under its CEO.</p>
<p>It may seem like a small thing, but it shows that Microsoft has changed its culture in a way that other former monopolies -- the cable companies specifically -- have struggled to do. Windows users now have options and keeping them from choosing Android, Chrome, or iOS devices requires listening to what they want.</p>
<p>This change will ultimately result in more people being happy with Windows. That's incredibly important for Microsoft because its operating system serves as a gateway to Office, Skype, Teams, and the rest of its software products. All of those services are available on other platforms, but it's an easy path from using Windows to becoming immersed in the Microsoft ecosystem and buying, or more likely subscribing to, multiple programs from the company.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than MicrosoftWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d3b8a68f-6968-4c65-a322-d5301ee7a671&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Microsoft wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d3b8a68f-6968-4c65-a322-d5301ee7a671&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p>Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Microsoft. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Microsoft Is Making Those Annoying Windows Updates a Thing of the Past | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/17/microsoft-is-making-those-annoying-windows-updates-thing-past.html | 2017-03-17 | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.