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>Following reports that AARP — the influential senior citizens lobby — will convene a closed-door meeting with higher-ups who advocate slashing essential welfare programs, progressive groups are launching campaigns to pressure the organization to stand firm against any cuts in Social Security benefits and Medicare.</p>
<p>Criticism of AARP from such groups is strong. Isaiah Poole with Campaign for America’s Future condemned the organization for taking seriously the proposals of those who want to slash and privatize Social Security:</p>
<p>“For years now, we’ve had a “debate” about how to make Social Security sustainable for the next 75 years. One side of that debate is using fear-mongering and deception to make the case for dismantling a public vehicle for economic security that many of the people on that side of the debate never believed should exist to begin with. Their dream remains replacing Social Security with a private insurance system that would be a playground for the same Wall Street gamblers and predators whose behavior trashed the value of our 401(k)s during the 2008 financial crash.”</p>
<p>— ARK</p>
<p />
<p>The Huffington Post:</p>
<p>“Once again, AARP is working behind the scenes to build support for benefit cuts while masquerading about as an ardent defender of the safety net to its massive, dues-paying membership,” reads a petition from the progressive blog FireDogLake.com. “This is outrageous, and AARP should immediately call off the event and disavow this shameful attempt to throw its weight behind benefit cuts.”</p>
<p>Credo Action, an online progressive advocacy group, asked its members to reach out to AARP. “Ironically, while the CEO of AARP is set to hold a private meeting with people who want to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, the organization has also just launched a national listening tour on the future of Social Security and Medicare. So if there’s ever a time to speak out to AARP, it’s now,” reads a letter to the group’s membership. “We are joining with other groups including our friends at Social Security Works in making sure AARP hears that everyday Americans don’t want cuts to Social Security benefits. We need to make sure AARP gets this message loud and clear.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/17/social-security-advocates-aarp_n_1355477.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Progressives Accuse AARP of Double-Dealing | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/progressives-accuse-aarp-of-double-dealing/ | 2012-03-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Amazon.com.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) might require a boatload of electricity to support its efforts as the king of online retailers and cloud computing. But thanks to its ambitious sustainability initiatives, Amazon is also quickly becoming one of the greenest companies in the world.</p>
<p>Amazon just announced its largest renewable-energy project to date, a massive 253-megawatt (MW) wind farm in Scurry County, Texas. Appropriately dubbed "Amazon Wind Farm Texas," the new farm will contain more than 100 massive wind turbines, is scheduled to begin delivering electricity to the grid in late 2017, and will be capable of generating 1 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity annually -- enough to power nearly 90,000 U.S. homes for an entire year.Amazon also said it will directly purchase around 90% of that electricity, noting that it contracted with Lincoln Clean Energy, which will build, own, and operate the farm.</p>
<p>This isn't Amazon's first wind-powered rodeo; Amazon Wind Farm Texas will jointhree other wind farms in Ohio (Amazon Wind Farm U.S. Central), Indiana (Amazon Wind Farm Fowler Ridge), and North Carolina (Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East), as well as a solar farm in Virginia (Amazon Solar Farm U.S. East), all of which deliver electricity into the grids powering current and future Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud data centers. When Amazon Wind Farm Texas is complete, Amazon's wind and solar farms will be able to collectively generate more than 2.6 million MWh of energy annually, or enough to power over 240,000 U.S. homes for a year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>How does this all fit into the bigger picture? Or, more specifically, how much of a dent have these projects put in Amazon's total energy usage? Amazon hasn't offered an update to that figure this year. But as of April 2015, Amazon did reveal that roughly 25% of the power consumed by its global AWS infrastructure already came from renewable-energy sources. It also set a goal to increase that number to at least40% by the end of 2016. And over the long term, Amazon aims to ensure that 100% of the power consumed by AWS will come from renewable-energy sources.</p>
<p>Then again, hitting that goal will be easier said than done, especially if Amazon Web Services is able to sustain its recent torrid pace of growth.</p>
<p>Last quarter, for example, AWS revenue skyrocketed 58% year over year, to $2.89 billion, and marked only a slight deceleration from the segment's 66% growth in trailing-12-month revenue, to $9.94 billion. And compared with Amazon's core retail business, the AWS segment is delightfully profitable, comprising just 10% of the company's overall sales last quarter, but almost 56% of total operating income.</p>
<p>To be fair, part of this incredible growth is the byproduct of Amazon more effectively monetizing the growing number of products and services afforded by AWS -- including but not limited to solutions for cloud infrastructure, file storage, data analytics, and security -- after a period of aggressively investing to build out its infrastructure.</p>
<p>But considering that a report last year from Morgan Stanley pegged Amazon Web Services' total addressable market at nearly $240 billion, and further estimated its share of revenue could more than double, to $20 billion, by 2018, you can be sure the size and energy requirements of Amazon Web Services' current infrastructure must inevitably increase over time.</p>
<p>So in the end, while Amazon Wind Farm Texas is easily Amazon's largest renewable-energy project to date, it seems safe to assume it won't be the last.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Amazon.com Just Took a Huge Step Toward Its 100% Renewable-Energy Goal | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/21/amazoncom-just-took-huge-step-toward-its-100-renewable-energy-goal.html | 2016-09-21 | 0 |
<p>Disclaimer:Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.</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> | Vanguard's VNQ getting makeover – ETF.com | false | https://newsline.com/vanguard039s-vnq-getting-makeover-etf-com/ | 2017-09-06 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico announced Tuesday that 11,600 of its current or former members were affected by the data breach at health insurer Anthem Inc. on Feb. 4. It said some of those affected had their Social Security numbers exposed.</p>
<p>“Some members may have been traveling and may have accessed an Anthem network or may actually reside in an Anthem state and have Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico coverage due to an employer or living situation,” said Blue Cross spokeswoman Becky Kenny.</p>
<p>The company will send notices within the next few weeks to those affected.</p>
<p>Blue Cross is a separate company from Anthem, but the two collaborate through various agreements.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Anthem data breach: 11,600 Blue Cross members affected | false | https://abqjournal.com/546186/anthem-data-breach-11600-blue-cross-members-affected.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p />
<p>The unfortunate kiddo was also informed that Dad Savings and Loan had checked his recent expenditures and found he had spent $80 in frivolous entertainment expenses since Christmas. Dad S&amp;L could not, in good conscience, give him a $20 loan that would only encourage these unsustainable spending habits.</p>
<p>The letter stated that the boy could contact the complaint department to appeal the decision of Dad S&amp;L. Of course, the head of the complaint department was mom.</p>
<p>You can see a photo of the professional looking loan rejection letter <a href="http://www.neatorama.com/neatobambino/2016/01/18/6-Year-Old-Asks-Dad-for-Allowance-Advance-Gets-Official-Loan-Rejection-Letter/" type="external">here</a>. With many kids today just being handed everything they want, it is refreshing to see a dad trying to teach his son how things work in the real world in a fun and creative way. What makes this story interesting is that the letter is realistic, and any parent can relate to having their child ask for money or new toys.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 6-Year-Old Asks Dad for Allowance Advance, Gets Official Loan Rejection Letter | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/01/26/6-year-old-asks-dad-for-allowance-advance-gets-official-loan-rejection-letter/ | 2016-01-26 | 4 |
<p>There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.”</p>
<p>–V. I. Lenin (1870-1924)</p>
<p>&#160;“Victory is accomplished through the perseverance of the last hour.”</p>
<p>–Prophet Muhammad (570-632 AD)</p>
<p>According to the CIA’s declassified documents and records, senior CIA operative, Kermit Roosevelt, paid $100,000 to mobsters in Tehran, in early August 1953, to hire the most feared thugs to stage pro-Shah riots.</p>
<p>Other CIA-paid men were brought weeks later, on August 19, into Tehran in buses and trucks to take over the streets, topple the democratically elected Iranian government, and restore Shah Reza Pahlavi to his thrown. It took the people of Iran 26 years, enormous sacrifices, and a popular revolution to overthrow the imposed, corrupt and repressive rule of the Shah.</p>
<p>This lesson was not lost on the minds of a small clique of officials who were meeting in desperation in the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, in Cairo. According to several sources including former intelligence officer Col. Omar Afifi, one of these officials was the new Interior minister, Police Gen. Mahmoud Wagdy, who as the former head of the prison system, is also a torture expert. He asked Hosni Mubarak, the embattled president to give him a week to take care of the demonstrators who have been occupying major squares around the country for about a week.</p>
<p>Not only he had to rapidly reconstitute his security forces, which were dispersed and dejected in the aftermath of the massive demonstrations engulfing the country, but he also had to come up with a quick plan to prevent the total collapse of the regime.</p>
<p>The meeting included many security officials including Brig. Gen. Ismail Al-Shaer, Cairo’s security chief, as well as other security officers. In addition, leaders of the National Democratic Party (NDP)- the ruling party- including its Secretary General and head of the Consultative Assembly (upper house of Parliament), Safwat El-Sherif, as well as Parliament Speaker, Fathi Sorour, were briefed and given their assignments. Similarly, the retained Minister of Information, Anas Al-Feky, was fully apprised of the plan.</p>
<p>By the end of the meeting each was given certain tasks to regain the initiative from the street; to end or neutralize the revolution; and to defuse the most serious crisis the regime has ever faced in an effort to ease the tremendous domestic and international pressures being exerted on their president.</p>
<p>They knew that eyes around the world would be focused on the massive demonstrations called for by the youth leading the popular revolution while promising million-strong marches on Tuesday, Feb. 1. True to their promise the pro-democracy groups drew a remarkable eight million people (ten percent of the population) throughout Egypt on that day.</p>
<p>People from every age, class, and walk of life assembled and marched in every province and city by the hundreds of thousands: two million in Tahrir Square in Cairo, one million in Martyrs Square in Alexandria, 750 thousand in downtown Mansoura, and a quarter million in Suez, just to name a few. It was an impressive show of strength. This time, they demanded not only the immediate removal of Mubarak but also the ouster of the whole regime.</p>
<p>An evil plan devised</p>
<p>As the fierce determination of the Egyptian people to remove their autocratic president became apparent, governments around the world began pressuring Mubarak to step down and be replaced by his newly appointed Vice President, the former head of intelligence, Gen. Omar Suleiman. President Barak Obama, for example, dispatched over the last weekend former U.S. Ambassador, Frank Wisner, a close friend to Mubarak to deliver such warning.</p>
<p>Wisner indeed delivered a firm but subtle message to Mubarak that he ought to announce that neither he nor his son would be presidential candidates later this year. He also urged him to transfer his powers to Suleiman. Western governments have been alarmed by the deterioration of the situation in Egypt and were trying to give their preferred candidate, Gen. Suleiman, the upper hand before events favor another candidate that might be less amenable to Israel and the West, and therefore shift the strategic balance of powers in the region.</p>
<p>On Saturday Jan. 29, The National Security Council advised the president to ask Mubarak in no uncertain terms to immediately step down. However, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, whom the president consulted,&#160; strenuously objected and pleaded for time to allow Mubarak to stay in power at least until he finishes his term in September.</p>
<p>Openly criticizing Obama, former Israeli Defense minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a longtime friend of Mubarak, said, “I don’t think the Americans understand yet the disaster they have pushed the Middle East into.” The Israeli lobby and Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir went overdrive and intensified their lobbying efforts in Congress in order to exert immense pressure on the administration. Reluctantly, the U.S. president relented.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the last touches of a crude plan to abort the protests and attack the demonstrators were being finalized in the Interior Ministry. In the mean time, the leaders of the NPD met with the committee of forty, which is a committee of corrupt oligarchs and tycoons, who have taken over major sections of Egypt’s economy in the last decade and are close associates to Jamal Mubarak, the president’s son. The committee included Ahmad Ezz, Ibrahim Kamel, Mohamad Abu el-Enein, Magdy Ashour and others.</p>
<p>Each businessman pledged to recruit as many people from their businesses and industries as well as mobsters and hoodlums known as Baltagies – people who are paid to fight and cause chaos and terror. Abu el-Enein and Kamel pledged to finance the whole operation.Meanwhile,the Interior Minister reconstituted some of the most notorious officers of his secret police to join the counter-revolutionary demonstrators slated for Wednesday, with a specific plan of attack the pro-democracy protesters.</p>
<p>About a dozen security officers, who were to supervise the plan in the field, also recruited former dangerous ex-prisoners who escaped the prison last Saturday, promising them money and presidential pardons against their convictions. This plan was to be executed in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, Damanhour, Asyout, among other cities across Egypt.</p>
<p>By Tuesday evening, Mubarak gave a speech in response to the massive demonstrations of the day. He pledged not to seek a sixth term, while attacking the demonstrators and accusing them of being infiltrated, in an indirect reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. Nevertheless, he pledged to complete his term and that he would not leave under pressure.</p>
<p>Although he pledged not to run, he was silent about whether or not his son would be a candidate. He ended his 10 minute address by giving his nation a grave warning that the situation was extremely dangerous, and that the country would face either “stability or chaos,” presenting himself as the embodiment of the former. Leaders of the pro-democracy demonstrators immediately rejected his characterization and insisted that he leave power.</p>
<p>Although Sen. John Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Relations Committee, called publicly on President Mubarak two days earlier to disavow any plans for his son to seek the presidency, the Egyptian president ignored his call. However, a former senior intelligence aide, Mahmoud Ali Sabra, who used to present daily briefs to Mubarak for 18 years (1984-2002), said publicly on Al-Jazeera that Mubarak has indeed been grooming his son to become president since at least 1997. Although Jamal had no official title in the government, Sabra stated that Mubarak asked him to present these daily intelligence reports to no one in the government except to him and his son.</p>
<p>Sabra also described how Mubarak was disturbed after the first stage of the 2000 Parliamentary elections, when the Muslim Brotherhood won a majority of seats. He then ordered his Interior Minister to manipulate the elections in the subsequent stages and forge the results in order to put NDP on top.</p>
<p>Shortly after the besieged president’s address to his nation around midnight on Tuesday, the baltagieswere unleashed on the pro-democracy demonstrators in Alexandria and Port Said beating and clubbing them in a rehearsal for what was to come the following day at Tahrir Square.</p>
<p>Tahrir or Liberation Square has been the center of action in Cairo throughout the protests. It’s the largest square in the country located in downtown Cairo where millions of demonstrators have been gathering since Jan. 25. Eight separate entrances lead to it including the ones from the American Embassy and the famous Egyptian museum.</p>
<p>Around 2 PM on Wednesday Feb. 2, the execution of the plan of attack ensued in earnest. Over three thousand baltagies attacked from two entrances with thousands of rocks and stones thrown at the tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators gathered in the square, while most attackers had shields to defend themselves against the returning rocks. While a few were armed with guns, all baltagies were armed with clubs, machetes, razors, knives or other sharp objects.</p>
<p>After about an hour of throwing stones, the second stage of the attacks proceeded as dozens of horses and camels came charging at the demonstrators in a scene reminiscent of the battles of the middle ages. The pro-democracy people fought back by their bare hands, knocking them from their rides and throwing their bodies at them. They subsequently apprehended over three hundred and fifty baltagies, turning them over to nearby army units.</p>
<p>They confiscated their IDs which showed that most assailants were either NDP members or from the secret police. Others confessed that they were ex-cons who were paid $10 to beat up the demonstrators. The camel and horse riders confessed to have been paid $70 each.</p>
<p>The third stage of the attack came about three hours later when dozens of assailants climbed the roofs in nearby buildings and threw hundreds of Molotov cocktails at the pro-democracy protesters below, who immediately rushed to extinguish the fires. They eventually had to put out two fires at the Egyptian museum as well. By midnight the thugs started using tear gas and live bullets from a bridge above the protesters killing five people and injuring over three dozens, ten seriously.</p>
<p>Interestingly, one hour before the planned assault the army announced to the demonstrators on national TV that the government “got the message” and then implored the protesters to end the demonstrations and “go home.” But when the protesters begged the army units to interfere during the brutal attacks that persisted for 16 hours, the army declared that it was neutral and partially withdrew from some entrances despite its promise to protect the peaceful and unarmed demonstrators.</p>
<p>By morning, the Tahrir Square resembled a battleground with at least 10 persons killed and over 2,500 injured people, 900 of which required transport to nearby hospitals as admitted by the Health ministry. Most of the injured suffered face and head wounds including concussions, burns and cuts because of the use of rocks, iron bars, shanks, razors, and Molotov cocktails. Al-Jazeera TV and many other TV networks around the world were broadcasting these assaults live to the bewilderment of billions of people worldwide.</p>
<p>Before the attacks started that afternoon, the Minister of Information had also executed his part of the plan. He called on all ministry employees to demonstrate on behalf of Mubarak in an upscale neighborhood in Cairo. He then asked the Egyptian state TV to broadcast live- for the first time in nine days of continuous demonstrations- the ensuing confrontation between the protesters and the government-sponsored thugs, in order to show the Egyptian people what chaos would bring to the country as Mubarak had warned them in his address just the previous night.</p>
<p>The battle plan was for the baltagies to block seven entrances of the Tahrir Square, leaving only the American Embassy entrance open for the thugs to push back the demonstrators in order for them to come so close to the Embassy that its guards surrounding it would have to shoot at them and thus instigate a confrontation with the Americans.</p>
<p>But the heroic steadfastness of the demonstrators lead by the youth was phenomenal as they not only withstood their ground but also chased them away every time they were pushed. By the next morning the assault fizzled and the whole world condemned the Mubarak regime for such wickedness, cruelty, and total disregard of human life.</p>
<p>“The events in Tahrir Square and elsewhere strongly suggest government involvement in violence against peaceful protesters,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of the Human Rights Watch. “The U.S. and other allies should make clear that further abuse will come at a very high price.”</p>
<p>By that afternoon every major Western country has called for Mubarak to step down including the U.S, the European Union, the U.K, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway and many others. In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the violence by the pro-Mubarak crowd “outrageous and deplorable” and warned that it should stop immediately.</p>
<p>On the other hand, by daybreak, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians joined their fellow pro-democracy activists in order to show support and solidarity. The leaders of the protests have already called for massive demonstrations on Friday across Egypt after congregational prayers, calling the event “Departure Day,” in a reference to the day they hoped to force Mubarak to resign or leave the country.</p>
<p>In an attempt to contain the damage about what happened in Tahrir Square on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq offered his apology to the people. He also denied his government’s involvement, calling for a prompt investigation and swift punishment for those who were responsible. Moreover, Vice President Suleiman appeared on state TV offering an olive branch to the opposition, declaring that all of their demands would be accepted by the government, while ignoring the main demand of Mubarak’s ouster. He then pleaded for time to implement political reforms.</p>
<p>He also appealed to the nation to allow President Mubarak to complete his term until the upcoming presidential elections in September. For the first time, the regime then vowed that the president’s son would not be a candidate. He further called for dialogue with all opposition parties.</p>
<p>Ahmad Maher, 29, the national coordinator of the “April 6 Youth” movement, the primary group that called for and organized the uprising, immediately rejected the offer by Suleiman, calling it a trick to abort the revolution. He insisted on the main demand of removing Mubarak from power before any negotiations could take place.</p>
<p>All other opposition groups, including the popular Muslim Brotherhood, followed suit. Friday’s “Departure Day” is promising to be a decisive day where the pro-democracy demonstrators vowed to continue the protests until Mubarak is ousted.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the regime in a last-ditch effort to limit the effect of the demonstrations have asked all foreign journalists to leave the country before D-Day (Departure Day), and dismantled all cameras from Tahrir Square. There is not a single network in Cairo today that can broadcast the event live. Clearly, this last ploy was designed to intimidate the demonstrators who insisted that they would not cowed.</p>
<p>Likely scenarios: remember Marcos?</p>
<p>The Obama administration is evidently very frustrated with Mubarak because of his stubbornness and obliviousness to reality. President Obama bluntly declared on Tuesday, “It is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now.”</p>
<p>Since the crisis began ten days ago, the U.S, which has been supporting and subsidizing the Egyptian regime for three decades, expected that its beleaguered ally would listen to its advice, limit the damage, pack up and leave. But his performance and ruthless behavior have endangered its other allies in the region, and caused long-term damage to its strategic interests, namely, Israel, stability, oil, and military bases.</p>
<p>Egypt was one of the most important countries and allies to the U.S. in the region. It was a cornerstone in its strategic equation. If Egypt were to be lost to a more independent leader, the strategic balance of power in the region would radically shift against America’s interest or its allies.</p>
<p>In turn this change might cause a major re-assessment of the long-term American strategy in the region, especially in regard to policies related to Israel and counter-terrorism. Thus, Vice President Suleiman is considered by the U.S. and other Western allies, as the best person who could fulfill this role of maintaining the status quo. Thus, the more Mubarak maneuvered to stay in power, the less likely this prospect would be realized.</p>
<p>Ambassador Wisner, who has been in Egypt since Saturday, was asked to deliver to Mubarak an ultimatum from Obama. It would be similar to the one given to Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines in 1989 by then President George H. W. Bush. Mubarak would be told that he should resign and transfer his presidential powers to his vice president.</p>
<p>If he refuses, the army would then remove him anyway, while Western governments would go after the billions in American and European assets that he and his sons have hoarded over the years. He would also be told that he would face a certain indictment by the International Criminal Court on War Crimes against his people. Surely, Mubarak would be expected to choose the first option and leave either to Germany under a medical pretext, or join his two sons in London.</p>
<p>As Omar Suleiman is promoted to become the new President of Egypt, this appointment will be hailed by Western governments and media as a great victory by the pro-democracy forces and as the expression of the will of the Egyptian people. Political and economic reforms will then be promised to the people, in an effort that allows great leeway in internal reforms but keep foreign policy intact.</p>
<p>However, this move will undoubtedly divide the country. The leaders of the revolution, namely the youth, who have led the demonstrations for the past two weeks and sacrificed blood for it, would continue to press for total and clean break from the previous regime. They will also be supported by popular and grass-roots movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>On the other hand, other opposition movements, which have little or no popular support bur were largely created by the Mubarak regime as a décor to portray a democratic image, will accept Suleiman and embrace the new arrangements in order to have a seat at the table and get a piece of the pie. The Egyptian public will likely be split as well.</p>
<p>With the monopoly of the government over the state media and other means of government information control, the new regime may bet on getting a slack from the public while it consolidates its power.</p>
<p>Alternatively, the youth movement, which started its march towards freedom and democracy using social media and independent means of communications, while spearheading the most robust and forceful democracy movement in the whole region, may actually have the last word.</p>
<p>ESAM AL-AMIN can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Mubarak’s Last Gasps | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/02/04/mubarak-s-last-gasps/ | 2011-02-04 | 4 |
<p>A new dinosaur discovered accidentally by a seven year old in Chile is one of the most unusual found to date and, as it turns out, was once the most abundant dinosaur in southwest Patagonia.</p>
<p>Chilesaurus diegosuarezi was found by Diego Suarez at the Toqui Formation in Aysén, south of Chilean Patagonia. He and his sister were looking for “decorative rocks” while his parents were working on a study to better understand the formation of the Andes mountain range. The dinosaurs name honors Suarez and the country where the remains were found.</p>
<p>The fossils date to the Jurassic period, roughly 145 million years ago and the find is unusual in more ways than one. Although Chilesaurus diegosuarezi was a plant eater but was closely related to the Tyrannosaurus rex. It comes from the theropod group which also included Velociraptor, Carnotaurus in addition to Tyrannosaurs.</p>
<p>This is the group from which scientists believe birds evolved but is the early example of a herbivore in the group.</p>
<p>Palaeontologists are calling the newly discovered dinosaur a ‘platypus’ because it has an unusual combination of characteristics which seem to belong to other known dinosaurs, otherwise known as “ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of_convergent_evolution" type="external">evolutionary convergence</a>“. In fact, early on in the process researchers thought that they had found a collection of bones from a variety of different animals.</p>
<p>However, since the initial discovery, more than four complete skeletons and a dozen complete Chilesaurusspecimens have been found. Most of the animals were about the size of a turkey but some measured almost 10 feet long.</p>
<p>The animals had feet that resembled early long-neck dinosaurs more than their famous carnivorous relatives. Because of a similar diet, Chilesaurus also had similar teeth to those of long-necked dinosaurs. It had a disproportionally small skull, robust forelimbs similar to velociraptor but without the claws on its fingers. Chilesaurus had a pelvic girdle resembles that of the <a href="http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/ornithischia/ornithischia.html" type="external">ornithischian dinosaurs</a> and a disproportionally small skull.</p>
<p>“Chilesaurus can be considered a ‘platypus’ dinosaur because different parts of its body resemble those of other dinosaur groups due to mosaic convergent evolution. In this process, a region or regions of an organism resemble others of unrelated species because of a similar mode of life and evolutionary pressures. Chilesaurus provides a good example of how evolution works in deep time and it is one of the most interesting cases of convergent evolution documented in the history of life,” said Martín Ezcurra, Researcher, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham in a <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/uob-bd042315.php" type="external">statement</a>.</p>
<p>Ezcurra is one of the authors of a paper detailing the findings published in full in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14307.html" type="external">Nature</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to its unusual anatomy, the discovery helps fill in some blanks in terms of life during the Jurrasic period in what is now Chile.</p>
<p>“Chilesaurus is the first complete dinosaur from the Jurassic Period found in Chile and represents one of the most complete and anatomically correct documented theropod dinosaurs from the southern hemisphere. Although plant-eating theropods have been recorded in North America and Asia, this is the first time a theropod with this characteristic has been found in a southern landmass,” said Dr. Fernando Novas, Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina.</p>
<p /> | Bizarre vegetarian T.Rex relative Chilesaurus discovered in Patagonia | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/28/newly-discovered-vegetarian-t-rex-relative-was-made-of-mismatched-parts/ | 2015-04-28 | 3 |
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker filed a $40.9 billion state budget with the Legislature on Wednesday, one that calls for a modest 2.6 percent hike in overall spending and renews a previously rejected proposal for curbing Medicaid costs.</p>
<p>The election year blueprint would increase total spending by $933 million spread over various areas of state government, including $83 million to upgrade programs for mentally ill adults, $20 million for the state’s child welfare agency and $49 million to cover rate increases for early education and child care.</p>
<p>Also included are funds to hire 200 new correction officers, 100 state police recruits and to raise the starting salaries for prosecutors in district attorneys’ offices.</p>
<p>“This fiscally responsible budget continues to support every community in the Commonwealth, without raising taxes on the people of Massachusetts,” said Baker, who plans to seek a second four-year term in November.</p>
<p>The administration and legislative leaders have agreed to base their spending assumptions on a projected 3.5 percent increase in tax revenues during the fiscal year that starts July 1. The estimate is a conservative one — as tax collections in the current fiscal year are running about 6 percent ahead of the benchmark.</p>
<p>The administration touted its success in slowing down runaway costs of MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program that consumes about 40 percent of the total budget. While MassHealth spending would continue to rise in the governor’s budget, it would do so by only 1.3 percent — less than the overall projected spending increase.</p>
<p>Baker is again asking lawmakers to approve a shift of 140,000 non-disabled people from MassHealth into subsidized insurance offered through the state’s Health Connector. The same plan was turned aside last year by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, following objections it could harm low-income families.</p>
<p>Addressing those concerns, Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders said the subsidized insurance plans would more closely mirror Medicaid coverage, include dental benefits and eliminate co-payments.</p>
<p>The budget is the first to include revenues from the sale of recreational marijuana, which is expected to begin this summer in Massachusetts. Officials are anticipating about $60 million in pot taxes, some of which will go toward regulating the new industry.</p>
<p>The budget assumes the state’s income tax rate will drop from 5.1 percent to 5.05 percent next January. Baker also is seeking to increase the state’s earned income tax credit for working families from 23 percent of to 30 percent of the federal credit, a proposal likely to be embraced by many Democrats.</p>
<p>The governor is again proposing to make short-term rentals, including online services such as Airbnb, subject to the state’s hotel tax, a move projected to raise $13 million.</p>
<p>Baker previously told cities and towns to anticipate a $37 million increase in unrestricted state aid, and a $118 million increase in aid to public schools, including $15 million to help school districts dealing with an influx of students whose families left Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.</p>
<p>In a statement, Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Boston Democrat who chairs the Senate Education Committee, called the school funding request “inadequate,” arguing it would leave K-12 funding down more than 5 percent since 2002 after being adjusted for inflation.</p>
<p>“That means more cuts to classrooms, in reality,” she said.</p>
<p>The administration is proposing a minimum $96 million deposit to the state’s reserves. Standard &amp; Poor knocked the state’s bond rating down a notch last year, citing the state’s failure to replenish its so-called rainy day fund.</p>
<p>Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said her group would like more money directed to the reserve fund. But she praised Baker’s overall fiscal management.</p>
<p>“I think limiting the growth in spending to the overall rate of revenue growth is really important,” she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed to this story.</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Republican Gov. Charlie Baker filed a $40.9 billion state budget with the Legislature on Wednesday, one that calls for a modest 2.6 percent hike in overall spending and renews a previously rejected proposal for curbing Medicaid costs.</p>
<p>The election year blueprint would increase total spending by $933 million spread over various areas of state government, including $83 million to upgrade programs for mentally ill adults, $20 million for the state’s child welfare agency and $49 million to cover rate increases for early education and child care.</p>
<p>Also included are funds to hire 200 new correction officers, 100 state police recruits and to raise the starting salaries for prosecutors in district attorneys’ offices.</p>
<p>“This fiscally responsible budget continues to support every community in the Commonwealth, without raising taxes on the people of Massachusetts,” said Baker, who plans to seek a second four-year term in November.</p>
<p>The administration and legislative leaders have agreed to base their spending assumptions on a projected 3.5 percent increase in tax revenues during the fiscal year that starts July 1. The estimate is a conservative one — as tax collections in the current fiscal year are running about 6 percent ahead of the benchmark.</p>
<p>The administration touted its success in slowing down runaway costs of MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program that consumes about 40 percent of the total budget. While MassHealth spending would continue to rise in the governor’s budget, it would do so by only 1.3 percent — less than the overall projected spending increase.</p>
<p>Baker is again asking lawmakers to approve a shift of 140,000 non-disabled people from MassHealth into subsidized insurance offered through the state’s Health Connector. The same plan was turned aside last year by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, following objections it could harm low-income families.</p>
<p>Addressing those concerns, Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders said the subsidized insurance plans would more closely mirror Medicaid coverage, include dental benefits and eliminate co-payments.</p>
<p>The budget is the first to include revenues from the sale of recreational marijuana, which is expected to begin this summer in Massachusetts. Officials are anticipating about $60 million in pot taxes, some of which will go toward regulating the new industry.</p>
<p>The budget assumes the state’s income tax rate will drop from 5.1 percent to 5.05 percent next January. Baker also is seeking to increase the state’s earned income tax credit for working families from 23 percent of to 30 percent of the federal credit, a proposal likely to be embraced by many Democrats.</p>
<p>The governor is again proposing to make short-term rentals, including online services such as Airbnb, subject to the state’s hotel tax, a move projected to raise $13 million.</p>
<p>Baker previously told cities and towns to anticipate a $37 million increase in unrestricted state aid, and a $118 million increase in aid to public schools, including $15 million to help school districts dealing with an influx of students whose families left Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.</p>
<p>In a statement, Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Boston Democrat who chairs the Senate Education Committee, called the school funding request “inadequate,” arguing it would leave K-12 funding down more than 5 percent since 2002 after being adjusted for inflation.</p>
<p>“That means more cuts to classrooms, in reality,” she said.</p>
<p>The administration is proposing a minimum $96 million deposit to the state’s reserves. Standard &amp; Poor knocked the state’s bond rating down a notch last year, citing the state’s failure to replenish its so-called rainy day fund.</p>
<p>Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said her group would like more money directed to the reserve fund. But she praised Baker’s overall fiscal management.</p>
<p>“I think limiting the growth in spending to the overall rate of revenue growth is really important,” she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed to this story.</p> | Governor sends $40.9 billion spending plan to Legislature | false | https://apnews.com/05790db963f748a7ac224335aaadd45f | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>After Tuesday's presidential debate, conservatives unleashed a barrage of criticism against the moderator of the debate, CNN's Candy Crowley.</p>
<p>Many alleged a liberal bias, saying that Crowley had helped President Barack Obama with her impromptu fact-check on his speech about the attack on a US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.</p>
<p>Rush Limbaugh said on Wednesday, "She kept feeding Obama lines. She did, folks, she kept feeding him lines. She kept prompting him. You Democrats, he couldn't have done this last night without her assistance," <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82538.html" type="external">according to Politico</a>.</p>
<p>He continued, "She committed an act of journalistic terror or malpractice last night. If there were any journalist standards, what she did last night would have been the equivalent of blowing up her career like a suicide bomber."</p>
<p>John Nolte <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/10/16/Crowley-Saves-Obama-with-false-fact-check" type="external">wrote in Breitbart</a>, "We're done with the second presidential debate, but it was apparent 45 minutes in that between the questions Crowley chose and her handling of who was allowed to speak and when, that this debate was a total and complete setup to rehabilitate Barack Obama."</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/121016/romneys-binders-full-women-comment-goes-viral" type="external">Romney's 'binders full of women' comment goes viral (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>"Candy Crowley, the CNN moderator in charge of tonight's debate, covered for President Obama by endorsing his false narrative of the killings in Libya," said John Fund, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/330695/moderators-should-not-be-fact-checkers-john-fund" type="external">writing for The National Review</a>. "She stepped out of the role of moderator to play an alleged 'fact-checker.' She corrected Mitt Romney's statement that Obama had referred to the Libyan attacks as a reaction to an anti-Muslim video, rather than a terrorist attack."</p>
<p>The biggest point of contention for conservatives was when Crowley responded to Romney's question of whether or not Obama defined the Benghazi attack as "an act of terror" or not by saying, "He did in fact, sir. So let me - let me call it an act of terror," according to Politico.</p>
<p>"Candy Crowley had no business trying to fact-check in real time, because she was incorrect," said Romney surrogate and former Gov. John Sununu, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82512.html" type="external">according to Politico</a>.</p>
<p>When <a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/10/17/cnn%E2%80%99s-candy-crowley-mitt-romney-%E2%80%98right-in-the-main%E2%80%99-about-libya/" type="external">Crowley later acknowledged on CNN</a> that Romney was "right in the main" but "picked the wrong word," conservatives accused her of backtracking.</p>
<p>Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said, "The moderator said that she - that he was right in the main on this, that she wasn't correct in pointing out that he made reference to this being a specific terrorist attack," while speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America," on Wednesday, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/17/candy-crowley-i-didnt-backtrack-on-libya-in-debate/" type="external">according to The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>During the debate, she had in fact followed up her initial assertion with, "He - he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take - it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea [of] there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that."</p>
<p>Crowley <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/candy-crowley-libya-fact-check-backtrack_n_1973431.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&amp;ir=Politics" type="external">reiterated her stance</a> on Wednesday, saying she was not backtracking on her initial statement.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/121016/obama-romney-debate-at-hofstra" type="external">Obama, Romney debate at Hofstra (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>Watch her interview on CNN:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Candy Crowley, debate moderator, defends herself over conservative criticism (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-10-17/candy-crowley-debate-moderator-defends-herself-over-conservative-criticism-video | 2012-10-17 | 3 |
<p>Evangelical megapastor, author, and television writer Rob Bell publicly expressed support for marriage equality Sunday, mincing few words as he offered a scathing critique of American evangelicalism.</p>
<p>Speaking before an assembled crowd at Grace Cathedral, an Episcopal church in San Francisco, Bell, an avowed evangelical who has been <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1692051,00.html" type="external">called</a> the “heir to Billy Graham,” responded to a question about his personal views on same-sex marriage with a firm endorsement of the right to marry.</p>
<p>BELL: I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.</p>
<p>Bell, who was promoting his new book What We Talk About When We Talk About God, also expressed frustration with conservative strains of American evangelicalism, saying their theologies “don’t actually shape people into more loving, compassionate people”:</p>
<p>BELL: I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn’t work. I think there is a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, Evangelical subculture that was told ‘we’re gonna change the thing’ and they haven’t. And they actually have turned away lots of people… We have supported policies and ways of viewing the world that are actually destructive. And we’ve done it in the name of God and we need to repent.”</p>
<p>Listen to the full interview here (his comments on marriage equality come at 42:30):</p>
<p>This is the first time Bell has offered public endorsement for the right to marry, a significant shift that will likely make waves given his prominence among evangelicals. Listed as one of Time Magazine’s <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066460,00.html" type="external">top 100 most influential people in the world</a> in 2011, the church Bell founded, Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, boasts a Sunday attendance of more than 10,000 members. But his influence extends far beyond the sanctuary walls: his books Love Wins and Velvet Elvis are New York Times bestsellers, and his NOOMA video series is a staple of church youth groups and young adult ministries all over the country. What’s more, Bell left his church in September 2011 to work on <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/septemberweb-only/rob-bell-lost-tv.html" type="external">a new television series</a> with “Lost” producer Carlton Cuse, setting himself up to have a nationally televised platform through which to express his popular — and increasingly progressive — theological views.</p> | Evangelical Megapastor Rob Bell Endorses Marriage Equality | true | http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/03/18/1737451/evangelical-megapastor-rob-bell-endorses-marriage-equality/ | 2013-03-18 | 4 |
<p>Hundreds Of Illegal Immigrant Minors Sleeping On Plastic Boards, Rotating Through 4 Showers At Shelter Get Ready To Know A Lot Less About The Texans Hundreds Of Illegal Immigrant Minors Sleeping On Plastic Boards, Rotating Through 4 Showers At Shelter SportsRadio 6-10s Bikini Contest Hundreds Of Illegal Immigrant Minors [?]</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/06/09/hundreds-of-illegal-immigrant-minors-sleeping-on-plastic-boards-rotating-through-4-showers-at-shelter/" type="external">Click here to view original web page at houston.cbslocal.com</a> <a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Pour.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p /> | Judge: The Government has simply chosen not to enforce the United States' border security laws | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/hundreds-of-illegal-immigrant-minors-sleeping-on-plastic-boards-rotating-through-4-showers-at-shelter-2/ | 0 |
|
<p>Acknowledging the alarming polarization and gridlock of Congress, and the startling, rightward shift of the political spectrum, you regularly hear people declare that there is no way we could get something as ambitious as OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) passed today, not in this dreadful climate.</p>
<p>Despite being signed into law in 1970 by a Republican (Nixon) administration, a regulatory act as progressive and comprehensive as OSHA would, today, be considered too invasive and too “federal” to have any chance of passing.&#160; And it wouldn’t just be those anti-government Republican advocates of “self-policing” leading the charge.&#160; Indeed, legions of gutless, sharp-eyed Democrats would join them.</p>
<p>On the bright side, it can be argued that this polarization and gridlock are precisely what prevent OSHA from being repealed outright.&#160; But the fact that it hasn’t been repealed doesn’t mean OSHA is doing the job it was intended to do.&#160; Incredibly, in over 40 years there has been only one monetary increase in penalties, despite inflation.&#160; Predictably, this has led unscrupulous employers to choose being hit with a miniscule fine rather than investing in a safer workplace.&#160; The fallout of this arrangement is that each year more than 5,000 American workers are killed on the job.</p>
<p>Which is why a bill (HR 2067), known as PAWA (Protecting America’s Workers Act) has been introduced in Congress.&#160; Its purpose is to basically modernize and upgrade OSHA—to equip it with the tools necessary to ensure safe work environments—by <a href="" type="internal" />increasing fines and penalties, expanding jurisdiction, raising certain misdemeanors to felonies, extending reporting deadlines, punishing repeat offenders more severely, etc.</p>
<p>In his March 16, 2010, testimony before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, and the Committee on Education and Labor, David Michaels, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, made the case for passage of PAWA, arguing that OSHA was desperately in need of help.</p>
<p>According to Michaels, despite tales of crushing, debilitating fines, the average OSHA penalty is around $1,000. That’s it:&#160; a thousand bucks.&#160; More revealingly, he notes that “the median initial penalty proposed for all investigations in cases where a worker was killed (as of FY 2007) was just $5,900.”&#160; Again, in more than 40 years, OSHA has had only one increase in monetary penalties.&#160; And because the whole point of a monetary penalty is to serve as a deterrent, it’s no surprise that fatalities continue to occur.</p>
<p>Other regulatory agencies have far greater latitude than OSHA in assessing fines.&#160; For instance, the Dept. of Agriculture can levy $130,000 on milk processors who willfully violate the Fluid Milk Promotion Act&#160; The FCC can fine a TV or radio station as much as $325,000 for indecent broadcasts.&#160; The EPA can hit companies with $270,000 for violations of the Clean Air Act, and penalize them $1 million “for attempting to tamper with the public water system.”</p>
<p>Yet, as Michaels points out, “the maximum civil penalty OSHA may impose when a hard-working man or woman is killed on the job—even when the death is caused by willful violation (my italics) of an OSHA requirement—is $70,000.”&#160; That’s a mind-blowing statistic.&#160; But if $70,000 is the maximum penalty, even for “willful and repeated violations,” what’s the minimum penalty for such violations?&#160; Answer:&#160; $5,000.</p>
<p>While the following is clearly an apples-and-oranges comparison, it’s worth noting.&#160; Per the terms of the Montreal Convention of 1999 (formally known as the “Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air”) the family of a person killed in an airline crash gets about $175,000, with no quibbles.&#160; That $175,000 happens to be the figure the carrier signatories were willing to pay.</p>
<p>But if you’re not lucky enough to die in a plane crash, if you die at work instead—say, if you slip and fall into a baling machine and are crushed to death—you’re worth only about $5,900.&#160; The astounding part of this isn’t the paltry sum of $5,900.&#160; The astounding part is that employers complain bitterly about the extent to which OSHA interferes with their businesses, as if American commerce were being systematically terrorized by this villainous safety agency.</p>
<p>Another astounding part of this is that the media continue to buy that story.&#160; You never read mainstream accounts where a ridiculously lowball OSHA fine is the central story.&#160; You never read about some guy who dies on the job, and OSHA fines the employer only $1,400, and that measly pay-out becomes the story’s angle.</p>
<p>Instead, the media do the exact opposite; they cherry-pick; they glorify; they use as an example of OSHA’s “dominion” the recent multi-million dollar fine of BP (British Petroleum), as if that anomalous levy were representative. But as Michaels notes in his testimony, since passage of OSHA in 1970, “fewer than 100 cases have been prosecuted [criminally] while more than 300,000 workers have died from on-the-job injuries.”</p>
<p>Although PAWA could go a long way toward rectifying these glaring inequities, it’s given little chance of passing.&#160; In any event, workers shouldn’t look to Congress for protection.&#160; In truth, the only realistic hope they have of working in a safe industrial environment is to join a union.&#160; The statistics are overwhelming.&#160; Union jobs are clearly safer than non-union jobs.&#160; And given that a union’s sole concern is the welfare of its members, why wouldn’t they be?</p>
<p>DAVID MACARAY, an LA playwright and author (“It’s Never Been Easy:&#160; Essays on Modern Labor”), was a former union rep. &#160; He is a contributor to&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</a>, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Kindle edition</a>. He can be reached at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | What’s an American Worker’s Life Worth? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/05/30/whats-an-american-workers-life-worth/ | 2012-05-30 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SAVANNAH, Ga. - The former pastor of a historic church in Savannah, Georgia, has been indicted on charges that he stole more than $250,000 in tithes and offerings from church members over the course of a decade.</p>
<p>The indictment filed Tuesday in federal court says the Rev. Corey Megill Brown diverted checks from his congregation at Second African Baptist Church into a bank account he controlled and used for personal withdrawals between March 2005 and February 2014.</p>
<p>Brown served for years as a Savannah-Chatham County police chaplain. Police spokeswoman Michelle Gavin said the department ended its affiliation with Brown when it learned he was under investigation in December 2014. Brown also left Second African that year.</p>
<p>A message left at a phone number listed for Brown was not immediately returned Thursday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Georgia pastor charged with stealing $250,000 from church | false | https://abqjournal.com/768838/georgia-pastor-charged-with-stealing-250000-from-church.html | 2 |
|
<p>DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — Smoking has been banned in all outdoor areas in the seaside Southern California town of Laguna Beach.</p>
<p>The City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to expand a ban that already covered beaches and parks.</p>
<p>That means the only place people will be allowed to smoke in the town of about 33,000 residents will be inside their homes and cars.</p>
<p>With the ordinance Dana Point joins nearby Laguna Beach as the only two cities in Orange County to prohibit smoking in public places. The new rule will go into effect in 30 days.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/16/dana-point-narrowly-passes-citywide-smoking-ban/" type="external">Orange County Register</a> says supporters of the ban brought to the hearing a jug filled with 3,250 cigarette butts collected in less than two hours over the weekend.</p>
<p>Dozens of cities statewide have adopted some sort of outdoor smoking ban.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Orange County Register, <a href="http://www.ocregister.com" type="external">http://www.ocregister.com</a></p>
<p>DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) — Smoking has been banned in all outdoor areas in the seaside Southern California town of Laguna Beach.</p>
<p>The City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday to expand a ban that already covered beaches and parks.</p>
<p>That means the only place people will be allowed to smoke in the town of about 33,000 residents will be inside their homes and cars.</p>
<p>With the ordinance Dana Point joins nearby Laguna Beach as the only two cities in Orange County to prohibit smoking in public places. The new rule will go into effect in 30 days.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/16/dana-point-narrowly-passes-citywide-smoking-ban/" type="external">Orange County Register</a> says supporters of the ban brought to the hearing a jug filled with 3,250 cigarette butts collected in less than two hours over the weekend.</p>
<p>Dozens of cities statewide have adopted some sort of outdoor smoking ban.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Orange County Register, <a href="http://www.ocregister.com" type="external">http://www.ocregister.com</a></p> | Seaside California town bans smoking in all outdoor areas | false | https://apnews.com/amp/45492f507747445492594f32bf335c23 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>&lt;img class="size-full wp-image-41659 aligncenter" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Illegal-Minor-Gang-Members.jpg" alt="Illegal Minor Gang Members Violence" width="1200" height="627" srcset="https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Illegal-Minor-Gang-Members.jpg 1200w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Illegal-Minor-Gang-Members-300x157.jpg 300w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Illegal-Minor-Gang-Members-768x401.jpg 768w, https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Illegal-Minor-Gang-Members-1024x535.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /&gt;</p>
<p>The left has some confused notions about quite a few things. Like lard laden behemoths being perfectly healthy. Or in this case illegal minors being huggable sufferers of misfortune… Who come to America for a better life equipped with nothing but the shirts on their backs and a heart full of good intentions. But turns out those carnivores in woolly clothing are more apt to get stabby than huggy (see <a href="" type="internal">Autistic Woman Kidnapped, Raped for Two Days. Yep, Rapist is Illegal Immigrant…</a>&#160;and <a href="" type="internal">Muslim Teen Killed by Illegal Immigrant… Still “Islamophobia”!?</a>).</p>
<p>As immigrant gangsters flood American streets, they bring with them white powders, illegal boomsticks, and trafficked 6-year-olds for <a href="" type="internal">Assad to marry</a>. But those are the adults. The unaccompanied niños coming into the U.S. are innocent, right? Incorrecto.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/21/feds-more-than-a-quarter-of-illegal-immigrant-minors-in-our-care-are-gang-members/" type="external">recent survey</a>, over a quarter of immigrant minors are gangsters.</p>
<p>The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) surveyed illegal immigrant minors in its custody and found that 28 percent of them were gang members, according to Senate testimony.</p>
<p>Lloyd said that a review of these unaccompanied minors in their facilities on June 9 found that of 138 minors in these facilities, 35 were “voluntarily involved with gangs.” He added that four had said they were forced into joining gangs.</p>
<p>The ORR director said that of the 59,170 unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors referred to ORR in Fiscal Year 2016, 95 percent were from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, all of which are nationalities that MS-13 recruits from.</p>
<p>&lt;img class="wp-image-41673 aligncenter" src="http://www.louderwithcrowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/gangsta.gif" alt="" width="508" height="254" /&gt;</p>
<p>In case you prefer to dwell under rocks, <a href="" type="internal">MS-13</a> is the gang of gangs. The <a href="" type="internal">Hillary</a> of Democrats. The Kathy Griffin of <a href="" type="internal">Liberal celebrities</a>. This gang is snatching up spicy chitlins faster than Chris Christie snatches unaccompanied bread rolls. But pay no mind to all that. To draw a connection between the two is to commit racist HATE SPEECH!</p>
<p>Quick question for leftists, does their violent track record make these chaps more eligible to become DREAMers? Wouldn’t want to discriminate against those lacking non-violent privilege. I’ll wait to hear back.</p>
<p>While we’re dispelling leftist myths, feast your eyes on this…</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>NOT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PODCAST?&#160; <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/louder-with-crowder/id929121341?mt=2" type="external">FIX THAT</a>! IT’S COMPLETELY FREE ON BOTH&#160; <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/louder-with-crowder/id929121341?mt=2" type="external">ITUNES&#160;HERE</a>&#160;AND&#160; <a href="https://soundcloud.com/louderwithcrowder" type="external">SOUNDCLOUD&#160;HERE</a>.</p>
<p /> | Narrative BUSTED: Survey Shows a Quarter of Illegal Minors are Gangsters… | true | https://louderwithcrowder.com/one-quarter-illegal-minors-gangs/ | 2017-06-23 | 0 |
<p>A new <a href="https://today.yougov.com/news/2017/06/20/Americans-agree-media-is-biased/" type="external">YouGov poll</a> on trust in the media spelled more bad news for the old guard establishment news organizations, which once were considered the incorruptible beacons of the truth but are now regarded with widespread skepticism on both sides of the aisle.</p>
<p>YouGov found that a total of 70% of Americans agree that news organizations report in a biased manner, a view held by majorities in both political parties, though Republicans were far more skeptical than Democrats.</p>
<p>YouGov's poll, published on June 20, found that an overwhelming number of Republicans (85%) agree that "news organizations tend to provide only one side of the story depending on who owns them or funds them," while a majority of Democrats (52%) felt the same.</p>
<p>Just 21% of the general population disagreed with the statement, including 14% of Republicans and 34% of Democrats. Chart below via YouGov:</p>
<p>The polling group found a similar difference between the two political sides in response to a related question: "Do you trust news organizations that have a reputation for objectivity proven by track record?"</p>
<p>Democrats were more likely to say they trusted news providers with strong track records than Republicans. While about two-thirds (67%) of the general public agreed, 83% of Democrats agreed and 58% of Republicans agreed. 24% of the general population disagreed, as did 10% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans.</p>
<p>The clear takeaway from both questions is that Republicans have grown more distrustful of news organizations in general, including those that have been traditionally regarded as reliable sources of information. YouGov's chart of the results below:</p>
<p>YouGov's poll falls in line with trends other polling groups, like <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx" type="external">Gallup</a>, have been tracking over the last few years: the American public continues to lose more confidence in the Fourth Estate. In one especially galling poll for the national media conducted soon after Donald Trump was inaugurated, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/media/318514-trump-admin-seen-as-more-truthful-than-news-media-poll" type="external">Emerson College</a> found that just 39% of American voters trusted the media while 53% considered it untruthful. That same poll found trust in the Trump administration higher: 49% of voters found it honest; 48% found it dishonest. Ouch.</p>
<p>The real question here is why do so many Americans distrust the media? And why do Republicans tend to be far more skeptical of news organizations than those on the Left? The last year has made the answer to both questions glaringly obvious: because the media — particularly those establishment organizations that boast "good reputations" and "proven track records" — have exposed themselves as overtly biased, and largely in favor of leftist ideology and the Democratic Party. It has simply become impossible to ignore — not just for those on the Right, but even for a majority of those who vote Democrat, as YouGov found.</p>
<p>For a recent example of this bias at work, check out <a href="" type="internal">this comparison</a> of media coverage of the shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and the shooting of Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords.</p> | The Media Is NOT Going To Like This Poll | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17826/media-not-going-poll-james-barrett | 2017-06-23 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What: Shares of the nation's fourth largest ethanol producer rocketed 40% higher in May. And although Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ: PEIX) rallied without any specific catalyst, beaten down investors saw a few glimmering reasons optimism.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PEIX" type="external">PEIX</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts</a></p>
<p>So what: Investors should acknowledge the obvious: the ethanol market remains challenged thanks to low commodity prices. Cheap corn has significantly lowered input costs for producers, but other headwinds persist. Low corn prices have reduced the value of biomass byproducts relied on to offset production costs, while multi-year low gasoline prices have resulted in multi-year low ethanol prices.</p>
<p>But good news continues to roll in. In March the U.S. Energy Information Administration <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=25312" type="external">announced</a>that the United States exported over 800 million gallons of ethanol in consecutive years for the first time ever, which supports a small (roughly 5.5% of total production) but growing destination for American ethanol producers.</p>
<p>Low gasoline prices throughout the United States have helped to push demand well past five-year highs. The trend hints that 2016 gasoline consumption will be higher than the 137 billion gallons gobbled up last year, which would support at least 13.7 billion gallons of ethanol production. When combined with record growth in exports to begin the year, fed by Brazil and newcomer China, ethanol producers could begin to see a market recovery as early as the current quarter. Prices have surged to a six-month high in early June.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Now what: That all bodes well for Pacific Ethanol, which increased production 153% in 1Q16 compared to the year ago period. As prices continue to rise, and the company continues to increase output, investors could be in for a long-awaited recovery in a stock that has fallen to levels last seen in 2013. Whether you think highly of ethanol or not, it's worth noting that the company's book value at the end of 1Q16 stood at over $9 per share -- a 50% premium to current prices.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/10/pacific-ethanol-rocketed-40-in-may-can-ethanol-pri.aspx" type="external">Pacific Ethanol Rocketed 40% in May, Can Ethanol Prices Keep the Rally Going?</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Maxx Chatsko</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. Follow him on Twitter to keep up with developments in the engineered biology field.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Pacific Ethanol Rocketed 40% in May, Can Ethanol Prices Keep the Rally Going? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/10/pacific-ethanol-rocketed-40-in-may-can-ethanol-prices-keep-rally-going.html | 2016-06-10 | 0 |
<p>LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Leicester’s fairytale run at the top of the English Premier League continued with a 3-2 win over Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday.</p>
<p>Riyad Mahrez converted the first of his two spot-kicks a half-hour in after Ramiro Funes Mori brought down Shinji Okazaki in the area, only for Romelu Lukaku to equalize five minutes later by finding the net in his seventh consecutive league match.</p>
<p>Mahrez’s second successful penalty came after Tim Howard clipped Leicester striker Jamie Vardy as he tried to round the goalkeeper after an hour.</p>
<p>Vardy set up Okazaki for Leicester’s third with a shot into the bottom corner, while Kevin Mirallas pulled another goal back for Everton near time.</p>
<p>The victory set a Premier League record as Leicester became the first club to have been bottom of the table on Christmas Day in one season - and then top of the standings the following Christmas Day.</p>
<p>More importantly, it also added to Leicester’s chances of achieving the seemingly impossible task of winning the title. Five of the last six teams to top the table on Dec. 25 went on to become champions, with Liverpool being the only exception in 2013-14.</p>
<p>Leicester broke the deadlock in the 28th minute when Christian Fuchs’ throw-in was flicked on by Vardy to Okazaki who did not appear to be offering a serious threat to Everton’s goal when Funes Mori brought him down.</p>
<p>Mahrez tucked the spot-kick just inside Howard’s right-hand post but Lukaku quickly replied with struck his 52nd goal in 102 Everton appearances.</p>
<p>Ross Barkley was denied by goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and had his follow up blocked on line by Andy King, allowed the Belgium international forward to hammer home the rebound.</p>
<p>In the second half, Vardy bent an effort past the far post, the closest he would come to scoring. But he had a more direct influence in winning the penalty when he was tripped in the penalty area by Howard as he ran onto Mahrez’s through-ball.</p>
<p>Mahrez went to Howard’s left this time to register his 10th goal in nine away league matches this season.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t nervous before my penalties - you choose a corner and shoot,” Mahrez said.</p>
<p>Substitute Mirallas set up a tense finish when he fired home at Schmeichel’s near post but Leicester held on, with Leonardo Ulloa forcing Howard to save with his legs in added time.</p>
<p>LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Leicester’s fairytale run at the top of the English Premier League continued with a 3-2 win over Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday.</p>
<p>Riyad Mahrez converted the first of his two spot-kicks a half-hour in after Ramiro Funes Mori brought down Shinji Okazaki in the area, only for Romelu Lukaku to equalize five minutes later by finding the net in his seventh consecutive league match.</p>
<p>Mahrez’s second successful penalty came after Tim Howard clipped Leicester striker Jamie Vardy as he tried to round the goalkeeper after an hour.</p>
<p>Vardy set up Okazaki for Leicester’s third with a shot into the bottom corner, while Kevin Mirallas pulled another goal back for Everton near time.</p>
<p>The victory set a Premier League record as Leicester became the first club to have been bottom of the table on Christmas Day in one season - and then top of the standings the following Christmas Day.</p>
<p>More importantly, it also added to Leicester’s chances of achieving the seemingly impossible task of winning the title. Five of the last six teams to top the table on Dec. 25 went on to become champions, with Liverpool being the only exception in 2013-14.</p>
<p>Leicester broke the deadlock in the 28th minute when Christian Fuchs’ throw-in was flicked on by Vardy to Okazaki who did not appear to be offering a serious threat to Everton’s goal when Funes Mori brought him down.</p>
<p>Mahrez tucked the spot-kick just inside Howard’s right-hand post but Lukaku quickly replied with struck his 52nd goal in 102 Everton appearances.</p>
<p>Ross Barkley was denied by goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and had his follow up blocked on line by Andy King, allowed the Belgium international forward to hammer home the rebound.</p>
<p>In the second half, Vardy bent an effort past the far post, the closest he would come to scoring. But he had a more direct influence in winning the penalty when he was tripped in the penalty area by Howard as he ran onto Mahrez’s through-ball.</p>
<p>Mahrez went to Howard’s left this time to register his 10th goal in nine away league matches this season.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t nervous before my penalties - you choose a corner and shoot,” Mahrez said.</p>
<p>Substitute Mirallas set up a tense finish when he fired home at Schmeichel’s near post but Leicester held on, with Leonardo Ulloa forcing Howard to save with his legs in added time.</p> | Leicester beats Everton 3-2 to ensure top slot in EPL | false | https://apnews.com/d8fa4001db14424bb827b0a40f6b4cc7 | 2015-12-19 | 2 |
<p>The American Dream, that fantasy of growth that has long girded the ideology of entrepreneurship and a better future, is in crisis. Many haven’t felt the dream for decades, some never having experienced it at all. Robert Putnam, in his latest work, Our Kids, seeks to confront this stagnation in our economic dreams by interrogating the forces that have taken hold of communities across the United States. In some ways a continuation of the issues he grappled with in his now famous work Bowling Alone, Our Kids provides a compelling account of the symptoms of inequality manifested in the behaviors, practices, and habits of increasingly unequal populations within the United States.&#160;</p>
<p>Our Kids opens with a portrait of Putnam’s hometown of Port Clinton, Ohio, a city which—in the 1950s—embodied the stereotype of the small American town. Port Clinton serves as the example, a town that has gone through the social and political transformations that have shaped the United States up to the present day, to open up Putnam’s discussion of what went wrong. Our Kids springs from the staggering statistics of youth unemployment, the spatial separation of the rich and the poor, and the undermining of the values and community life that, Putnam claims, once defined his hometown.</p>
<p>The author seeks to get at the heart of the inequality debate, while distinguishing between equality of income and wealth on the one hand, and equality of opportunity on the other. In maintaining this traditionally American fixation on equality of opportunity, Putnam asks, “Do youth today coming from different social and economic backgrounds in fact have roughly equal life chances, and has that changed in recent decades?” (31) The text that follows is an exploration from inside out, starting with individuals and their families, to the neighborhoods they grow up in and the schools they attend, pursuing the effects of inequality and how it has manifested itself in cognition, family life, institutions, and space.&#160;</p>
<p>Written for a non-specialist audience, Our Kids utilizes a mixed-method approach to investigate its research question. Putnam begins each chapter with a collection of life stories from anonymized characters, chosen as representatives of the great class divide. But behind each story lies a wealth of quantitative data, statistics that take certain segments of the individuals’ life stories and show how their experiences are common occurrences in this new landscape of growing inequality. It is this blending of the individual case with societal trends that represents, in my opinion, the best kind of social science. How do we find the general in the particular?</p>
<p>Putnam is tracing a trend that began in the 1950s when he claims that “the power of race, class, and gender to shape life chances in America has been substantially reconfigured” (18). His findings show the dominance of class in discussions of the variables that have come to define social existence, stating that while “gender and racial biases remain powerful,” there is evidence to show that these divisions are lessening (19). In the twenty-first century, class inequalities are widening, and therefore it is class analysis that forms the backbone of the text.&#160;</p>
<p>How does he make this argument? Going back to the theme of equality of income versus equality of opportunity, Putnam contrasts the concepts of absolute and relative mobility. Absolute mobility is experienced during times of growth, when all classes are experiencing increasing standards of living, albeit within their own class categories. Relative mobility—historically a much less frequent form of mobility—is when a child born to lower-class parents can move him or herself into a higher class. When Putnam was a child in Port Clinton, both absolute and relative mobility were high. This was a period when the United States was experiencing an incredible amount of growth due to the post-World War II economic boom. But while research has shown conclusively that absolute mobility has been halted since the 1970s, Putnam wants to focus on relative mobility. He argues that the opportunity gap has widened to such an extent, with both absolute and relative mobility at a standstill, that those who are unfortunate enough to have been born into the underclass are faced with immense challenges in the makeup of their social reality. The story of how inequality has manifested itself into this inescapable trap in the experiences of everyday Americans is the focus of the book.</p>
<p>The data begins with families, drawing on two radically different life experiences from the same town in Bend, Oregon, to illustrate the decline of family life. The reader is presented with a study in contrasts, one that repeats itself in every chapter. On one side of the river lives a family where the parents have university educations, planned their futures according to their finances, held well-paying jobs, and were able to use their resources to help their kids when they needed them most. On the other side lives a poor family, the result of financial hardship, broken homes, drug and alcohol abuse, and other barriers to mobility. Putnam’s focus here is on how family life has been restructured based on class origin.&#160;</p>
<p>His evidence demonstrates how the number of less-educated mothers giving birth out of wedlock is rising, while a similar statistic for educated mothers has remained constant. It is not an “uncaused first cause” (79), but ties together with lowered wages, a rising prison population, the sexual revolution, and so on. The consequences are that younger mothers have less time to focus on ways they could improve their economic well-being, resulting in less upward mobility. Here we begin to see Putnam’s conception of social capital in play. A difference in the quality of family life between the upper and lower classes leads to lower-class children having less social capital, seen in the “stable parental support” of the first family example against the “dreadful chaos” of the second (78).&#160;</p>
<p>The discussion of family leads into a focus on parenting and child-rearing strategies. Perhaps the most interesting discussion here is how the neural development of children who are born into lower-class households is influenced by their environment. Citing recent research by the National Academy of Sciences, Putnam shows how behavioral and cognitive development that begins to materialize in middle age is present in children as young as 18 months, and often earlier. This leads him to conclude that “the brain, in short, develops as a social organ, not an isolated computer” (110); toxic stress from neighborhood stimuli and parental neglect shape brain chemistry from our earliest years.</p>
<p>The breaking up of family units that lose the ability to socially reproduce because of “bad” parenting influences the communities of which those families and individuals form a part. Putnam’s discussion of schooling shows how cognitively fit children with better-educated parents attend schools and grow up in neighborhoods that have been segregated in such a way as to encourage success only on behalf of the fortunate ones.&#160;</p>
<p>It is not my intention in this review to repeat the author. I simply want to show how Putnam’s chapters and argument relate to one another to give a sense of the narrow scope that Putnam is working with in addressing the subjects he puts forward. Putnam presents a constellation of variables, and then discusses how they relate to and reflect each other rather than establishing a first cause. While the raw data is true, and we cannot deny the humanity of the people discussed in Putnam’s cases, there is a problem in how Putnam analyzes the data that goes back to his conception of class and his reliance on his theoretical conception of social capital. Putnam himself claims that his is “a book without upper-class villains” (229), but this is partly because Putnam’s scope is not wide enough to include the “villain” in the picture. It’s this “end of ideology” argument that has become all too familiar; the elephant in the room is that political economy has been replaced by culture.</p>
<p>Part of Putnam’s problem is that his metric for viewing class is based on educational credentials. In other words, for him the great class separation is between those who have a Bachelor’s degree and those who have only attended high school. All of his discussions of class are boiled down to this division; all of his charts illustrate the same scissor pattern showing the divide between upper and lower classes. As an indicator of social class, Putnam prefers looking at education over income, which he argues is “much ‘noisier’ (error-prone or entirely missing) and because when both are available, education is typically the more powerful predictor of child-related outcomes” (44). If modern educational credentials have become the signs by which we assign individuals and classes their status in the social hierarchy, viewing class as defined by education will lead to expressions of social divisions. However, this view of class focuses much more on habits, behaviors, and tastes than on socio-economics, and therefore lacks history.&#160;</p>
<p>Putnam’s inspiration for operationalizing class as education stems from sociologist Douglas Massey, who in his work Categorically Unequal, which Putnam cites, argues that education is “the most important resource in today’s knowledge-based economy” (45). This is undoubtedly true, but the question must be: What is the knowledge economy and who is responsible for creating this kind of social map? The term “knowledge economy” is frequently cited along with other related concepts: the “information age,” “globalization,” “post-scarcity,” and so on. These concepts have come to reflect the significant shift in the economic, political, social, and cultural landscape that the United States experienced in the second half of the twentieth century.&#160;</p>
<p>The graph in figure 11 is a common sight these days, representing how the income of the top 10 percent of the population has skyrocketed since the 1980s. This is the segment of the population that Putnam has in his sights when demarcating an upper class.</p>
<p />
<p>However, when one looks at Figure 2, which subdivides the top 10 percent, it is clear that it is the top 1 percent that has been making the most gains and by the sheer force of their wealth has curved the trend of the top 10 percent upwards. This is even starker in Figure 3, which subdivides further into the top 0.01 percent.</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Here we see the historical rise of a really dominant class, which is a much smaller yet incredibly powerful group. It is the enormous wealth increase that was experienced by this top 0.01 percent that has redrawn the class hierarchy, bestowing enormous economic and political power to a group that can utilize that influence to reshape American society to its ends. To put it bluntly, the distinction that Putnam draws between upper and lower classes based on education represents a division in cultural taste and access to resources rather than a separation of classes. An insistence on seeing class through the lens of social capital, rather than economic capital, obfuscates this much starker phenomenon. Putnam’s analysis very opportunistically ignores not only policies but the historical reformation of the transnational capitalist class, including the battles it has waged in the political arena to get us to where we are today and its influence on domestic and foreign policy.&#160;</p>
<p>How the U.S. middle class shrank, and how the upper middle class retained its share of resources post-1980 is a discussion worth ten dissertations. I would argue it has to do with the loss of manufacturing jobs and the growth of management positions related to the service, knowledge-based, and financialized economy. The distinction between the lowest classes and the upper middle class is an important issue that Putnam’s research reveals, but he fails to analyze it fully. What’s needed is a discussion of how the social hierarchies have been redrawn and how the space they have come to occupy was created.</p>
<p>The class-as-education model comes from Putnam’s reliance on the theoretical framework of social capital. Social capital is a concept that has been around for a long time and one that has many different definitions. At its core is the idea that social networks and relationships have an intangible value of which an individual can possess varying quantities. Putnam defines it as “informal ties to family, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances; involvement in civic associations, religious institutions, athletic teams, volunteer activities; and so on” (207). However, one cannot really discuss social capital without discussing political economy, since it is political economy that allows for the space and resources that develop the institutions of social capital.&#160;</p>
<p>The historical legacy of social capital theorists is much less forgiving. By utilizing theories of domesticated social capital (those that eschew a relationship to political economy), intellectual cover was provided to some of the worst policies of neoliberalism. To be fair, Putnam disagrees with the relationship drawn between social capital and neoliberalism.2 But that did not stop the World Bank from utilizing measures of social capital to legitimize privatization.3 In the geopolitical sphere, social capital has been used as a measure to determine “weak” or “failing” states.4 Following Bill Clinton’s lead, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair even cited Putnam’s work when introducing New Labour policies.5 These conceptions of social capital reflect an inability to seriously grapple with the instability and suffering produced by neoliberal reform and late capitalism.6</p>
<p>It’s no surprise then that Putnam only briefly mentions some of the economic realities behind his community studies. Port Clinton saw the death of manufacturing. Bend, Oregon, suffered from a huge loss of jobs in the logging industry. His discussion of schools only briefly mentions the struggle of inner-city schools over tightening budgets due to fiscal austerity. And when discussing private for-profit colleges and their bogus degrees, there is only a brief musing on the predatory nature of for-profit institutions.</p>
<p>All this is not to say that Putnam is flat-out wrong. His findings are obviously important, and the variables that he discusses in the social lives of his respondents are related in some way. But it is myopic to think that this transformation has come out of nowhere. The phenomena Putnam is talking about are symptoms of inequality, an inequality that is economic, the result of a class-based political project forged for the interests of a particular class, by a particular class. Putnam’s work is important in showing us the human cost of such a project and the shaping of the underclass that is the harbinger of a new gilded age. However, his focus is too limited for helping us engage in the political struggle needed to oppose it.</p> | Social Capital and Class | true | http://newpol.org/content/social-capital-and-class | 4 |
|
<p />
<p>Just a little more salt poured into Davis’ open wound. I like it!</p>
<p>State Senator-elect&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/11/04/Tea-Party-Takes-Wendy-Davis-Senate-Seat-Konni-Burton-Wins" type="external">Konni Burton</a>&#160;(R-Colleyville) will step forward as Senate District 10’s next representative in a pair of custom made black leather boots with a “Stand for Life” logo in purple lettering on the front. During Davis’ filibuster,&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23stand4life&amp;src=typd" type="external">#stand4life</a>&#160;became a nationally trending hashtag, and it remains a popular slogan among pro-life activists to use on social media.</p>
<p>Breitbart Texas&#160;has been exclusively provided with photos of the boots that Burton will wear on Tuesday. According to Burton, the boots are by&#160; <a href="http://www.texascustomboots.com/" type="external">Texas Custom Boots</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://vicimediagroup.com/" type="external">Vici Media</a>&#160;designed the logo.</p>
<p>Burton was well known in her district as a&#160;tea party leader and strong fiscal conservative, and her electoral victory received&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2014/11/11/rush-limbaugh-texas-had-a-war-on-liberals-with-konni-burton-s-election-to-wendy-davis-seat/" type="external">national media attention</a>, as conservative activists cheered the message sent by replacing&#160;Davis with not just a Republican, but one who was an outspoken advocate for life and was endorsed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas).</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/01/13/konni-burton-takes-wendy-davis-seat-in-pro-life-boots/" type="external">Breitbart</a></p> | THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING: Konni Burton Takes Wendy Davis’ Seat in Pro-Life Boots | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/boots-made-walking-konni-burton-takes-wendy-davis-seat-pro-life-boots/ | 0 |
|
<p>No fugitive can run forever. More than two months after it escaped from his pen in a Japanese aquarium, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/tokyo-sea-life-park-hunts-escaped-penguin" type="external">Penguin 337</a> is back behind bars.</p>
<p>Two <a href="http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/english/kasai/main.html" type="external">Tokyo Sea Life Park</a> keepers caught the runaway yesterday evening under a bridge over the Edogawa river in Ichikawa, on the north side of Tokyo Bay, the <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/madagascar-penguin-recaptured/story-fn6ck55c-1226366312413" type="external">Agence France Presse reported</a>.</p>
<p>The&#160;1-year-old Humboldt penguin, known by its park ID number 337, had been living free since early March, when it tackled a 2-meter fence to make it into the waters of the Edogawa.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/tokyo-sea-life-park-hunts-escaped-penguin" type="external">Tokyo aquarium hunts for escaped penguin</a></p>
<p>During his 11 weeks on the run, Penguin 337 was spotted some 30 times in and around the Tokyo Bay area - making it the first runaway penguin known to have reach the sea, <a href="http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120520002544.htm" type="external">the Yomiuri Shimbun reported</a> earlier this week.&#160;</p>
<p>Video footage showed the bird "frolicking in the water and apparently happy," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-japan-penguin-idUSBRE84G04C20120517" type="external">according to Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps it liked the local fish, zoological experts told the Yomiuri.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the aquarium confirmed to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18202053" type="external">the BBC</a> that Penguin 337 seemed to be in good health on his return. "It hasn't lost weight," he told the network. "It hasn't got fatter either, but its health seems good."</p>
<p>The penguin eluded keepers and coast guards on more than one occasion.</p>
<p>Humboldt penguins can swim at speeds of almost 25 mph and stay underwater for more than five minutes at a time, the Yomiuri said, which meant that keepers' only hope was to grab the bird as it returned to land to sleep.</p> | Japan's escaped Penguin 337 back behind bars | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-25/japans-escaped-penguin-337-back-behind-bars | 2012-05-25 | 3 |
<p />
<p>In South Africa, which already boasts one of the world’s highest rape rates, black lesbians are being targeted for particularly brutal assaults. The frequent victims of gang assaults and hideous torture, the government does absolutely nothing. One woman spoke of her gang-rapists taunting her with the “classic lesson” they were imparting during her 2003 abduction. At least she survived. And damned if she isn’t still living her life as an out and proud lesbian and high-profile “footballer.” Where do Third World women find the courage?</p>
<p>The government, even in the case of a rare prosecution, refuses to acknowledge that lesbians are being specifically targeted. Called “corrective rape” by human rights workers (i.e. rape meant to set the lesbos straight), pressure is mounting for the judiciary there to dub attacks on lesbians hate crimes and forcefully prosecute these criminals. Good luck.</p>
<p>From <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa" type="external">The Guardian</a>:</p>
<p>“The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa’s acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa’s best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.</p>
<p>Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbian women in South Africa has continued to rise…Now, a report by the international NGO ActionAid, backed by the South African Human Rights Commission, condemns the culture of impunity around these crimes, which it says are going unrecognised by the state and unpunished by the legal system.</p>
<p>If South Africa isn’t going to prosecute crime, should the women there, straight and gay, go commando and start parceling out justice on their own?</p>
<p /> | Male Violence With Impunity: “Corrective” Rape in South Africa | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/03/male-violence-impunity-corrective-rape-south-africa/ | 2009-03-13 | 4 |
<p>On Thursday, two members of the terrorist organization Hezbollah were arrested in the United States; one in the Bronx and one in Michigan. One was gathering information regarding operations and security at airports in the U.S. and surveilling U.S. military and law enforcement facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The other was identifying areas of weakness and construction at the Panama Canal.</p>
<p>Ali Kourani, 32, of the Bronx, New York, was charged with providing, attempting, and conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah; receiving and conspiring to receive military-type training from Hezbollah; a related weapons offense that is alleged to have involved, among other weapons, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and machine guns; violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); and naturalization fraud to facilitate an act of international terrorism.</p>
<p>Samer el Debek, 37, of Dearborn, Michigan, aka “Samer Eldebek,” was charged with providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to Hezbollah; receiving and conspiring to receive military-type training from Hezbollah; use of weapons in connection with a crime of violence that is alleged to have involved, among other weapons, explosives, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and machine guns; and violating and conspiring to violate IEEPA.</p>
<p>Joon H. Kim , acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said:</p>
<p>Today, we announce serious terrorism charges against two men who allegedly trained with and supported the Islamic Jihad Organization, a component of the foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah. Recruited as Hezbollah operatives, Samer El Debek and Ali Kourani allegedly received military-style training, including in the use of weapons like rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns for use in support of the group’s terrorist mission. At the direction of his Hezbollah handlers, El Debek allegedly conducted missions in Panama to locate the U.S. and Israeli Embassies and to assess the vulnerabilities of the Panama Canal and ships in the Canal. Kourani allegedly conducted surveillance of potential targets in America, including military and law enforcement facilities in New York City. Thanks to the outstanding work of the FBI and NYPD, the allegedly destructive designs of these two Hezbollah operatives have been thwarted, and they will now face justice in a Manhattan federal court.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-arrested-terrorist-activities-behalf-Hezbollahs-islamic-jihad-organization" type="external">DOJ noted</a>:</p>
<p>Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based Shia Islamic organization with political, social, and terrorist components. … Since Hezbollah’s formation, the organization has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds, including U.S. citizens and military personnel. In 1997, the U.S. Department of State designated Hezbollah a Foreign Terrorist Organization, pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and it remains so designated today. … In 2010, State Department officials described Hezbollah as the most technically capable terrorist group in the world, and a continued security threat to the U.S.</p>
<p>The Islamic Jihad Organization (“IJO”), which is also known as the External Security Organization and “910,” is a component of Hezbollah responsible for the planning and coordination of intelligence, counterintelligence, and terrorist activities on behalf of Hezbollah outside of Lebanon.</p>
<p>The DOJ pointed out:</p>
<p>In 2011, for example, Kourani attended an IJO military training camp located in the vicinity of Birkat Jabrur, Lebanon, where he was provided with military-tactics and weapons training, including training in the use of a rocket propelled grenade launcher, an AK-47 assault rifle, an MP5 submachine gun, a PKS machine gun (a Russian-made belt-fed weapon), and a Glock pistol. Based on other taskings from IJO personnel, which were conveyed during periodic in-person meetings when Kourani returned to Lebanon, Kourani conducted operations that included searching for weapons suppliers in the U.S. who could provide firearms to support IJO operations, identifying individuals affiliated with the Israeli Defense Force, gathering information regarding operations and security at airports in the U.S. and elsewhere, and surveilling U.S. military and law enforcement facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Kourani transmitted some of the products of his surveillance and intelligence-gathering efforts back to IJO personnel in Lebanon using digital storage media.</p>
<p>El Debek received military training from Hezbollah in Lebanon on several occasions. … Based on information el Debek provided to the FBI, FBI bomb technicians have assessed that el Debek received extensive training as a bomb-maker, has a high degree of technical sophistication in the area, and was trained in techniques and methods similar to those used to construct the improvised explosive device used in Hezbollah’s 2012 Burgas, Bulgaria, bus bombing.</p>
<p>In early 2012, el Debek again traveled to Panama for Hezbollah, passing through New York and New Jersey, and was asked to identify areas of weakness and construction at the Panama Canal, as well as provide information about how close someone could get to a ship passing through the Canal. Upon his return from Panama, el Debek’s IJO handlers asked him for photographs of the U.S. Embassy there and details about its security procedures.</p> | Two Members Of Hezbollah Arrested By DOJ. They Were Surveilling Airports, Military Facilities, And The Panama Canal. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17328/two-members-hezbollah-arrested-doj-they-were-hank-berrien | 2017-06-08 | 0 |
<p>After Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed on Thursday that any hopes fans had for a third “ <a href="http://variety.com/tag/sex-and-the-city/" type="external">Sex and the City</a>” film are dashed, her co-star <a href="http://variety.com/tag/kristin-davis/" type="external">Kristin Davis</a>, who played Charlotte Goldenblatt, took to Instagram to express her disappointment with the news.</p>
<p>“I love to look back at the pics from our LONG history of <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/cynthia-nixon-rumors-governor-new-york-1202519285/" type="external">Sex and the City</a>,” she wrote. “It is true that we are not going to be able to make a 3rd film. I wish that we could have made the final chapter, on our own terms, to complete the stories of our characters.”</p>
<p>Davis added that Michael Patrick King had already written the script, which Parker had previously confirmed. “It is deeply frustrating not to able to share that chapter (beautifully written by MPK) with all of you.”</p>
<p>“So we will just have our memories,” she continued. “But please know that all of the love and support for us through the years is felt by us and we are so grateful for all of you! SATC forever in our hearts.”</p>
<p>Parker confirmed the news in an interview with <a href="http://extratv.com/2017/09/28/sarah-jessica-parker-confirms-there-will-be-no-sex-and-the-city-3/" type="external">Extra</a> on Thursday. “It’s over,” she said.&#160;“I’m disappointed. We had this beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, joyful, very relatable script and story.”</p>
<p>“It’s not just disappointing that we don’t get to tell the story and have that experience, but more so for that audience that has been so vocal in wanting another movie,” she added.</p>
<p>Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon also starred in the films and original TV series, as Samantha Jones and Miranda Hobbes, respectively. According to a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4929412/Kim-Cattrall-causes-studio-shelve-Sex-City-3.html" type="external">Daily Mail report</a>, Cattrall told Warner Bros. she would only participate in the third “Sex and the City” installment if the studio developed other projects of hers as well, which led to the demise of the film when Warner Bros. refused to meet her demands. Cattrall, however, has denied the reports.</p> | Kristin Davis: ‘It Is Deeply Frustrating’ That ‘Sex and the City 3’ Won’t Be Made | false | https://newsline.com/kristin-davis-it-is-deeply-frustrating-that-sex-and-the-city-3-wont-be-made/ | 2017-09-30 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/steelcityhobbies/236219991/in/photolist-mSFYt-mSGXj-mSGhQ-mSG2P-mSHiX-mSGH7-mSGJa-mSGwZ-mSFM5-mSHi9-mSHfK-mSG4K-mSFPX-mSGN3-mSFDG-mSFHX-mSGF8-mSGvS-mSFKB-mSFCy-mSHpX-mSGPG-mSHnv-mSGVt-mSGLv-mSGQ7-mSG1C-mSHka-mSGqn-mSFHc-mSGBN-mSH9a-mSHoj-mSGNX-mSG8T-mSFZr-mSFXN-mSGrb-mSFV8-mSGiG-mSGUK-mSFTA-mSHcJ-mSGSz-mSGkM-mSH41-mSH2J-mSGu7-mSGW9-mSGpc" type="external">Flickr/SteelCityHobbies. Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The NFL has already sold off the rights to broadcast its 18-game slate of Thursday Night Football, but the digital streaming rights are still up for grabs. <a href="http://recode.net/2016/03/03/facebook-wants-to-pay-for-nfl-streaming-rights-but-apple-doesnt/" type="external">Re/Code Opens a New Window.</a> reports that Facebook tops the list of potential bidders to stream the games. Amazon.comand Verizon-- which already has the rights to stream games on smartphones -- also make the list.</p>
<p>While Facebook is making a big push into live video and real-time content, the NFL rights might not be the best fit for the social media company.</p>
<p>Shut out on its home fieldFacebook's biggest strength is in smartphones. Management says that one out of every five minutes spent on smartphones involves using Facebook's flagship app, Messenger, or Instagram. Of its 1.59 billion monthly users, 90% of them access the social network through mobile, and more than half access the network exclusively through mobile.</p>
<p>But Verizon already holds the exclusive rights to stream NFL games on smartphones, locking Facebook out of this important space..</p>
<p>Amazon is comparatively well-equipped to stream NFL games on non-mobile devices. Consumers are used to streaming content from Amazon on tablets and set-top boxes like the Fire TV. Since those are the rights up for grabs, the e-commerce leader stands a better chance of reaching a large audience compared with Facebook.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Lost its last matchupFacebook has teamed up with the NFL in the past. In the last few weeks of the 2014 season, the company partnered with the NFL to show game highlights, including advertisements for Verizon.</p>
<p>When the 2015 season rolled around, the NFL didn't renew its contract with Facebook, despite doing so with other social media companies. That would imply the early tests with Facebook were not promising enough to pursue further. While live streaming a game offers more natural revenue opportunities with consistent breaks in the action, it's not clear Facebook users are all that interested in NFL content.</p>
<p>The company says it has 650 million sports fans, and it recently launched a new feature called Sports Stadium just ahead of the Super Bowl to cater to them. Sports Stadium saw a significant amount of traffic during the big game, so much that Facebook couldn't keep up and the feature lagged the actual gameplay.</p>
<p>Better options available in free agencyThe biggest reason for Facebook to forgo the NFL rights actually has nothing to do with logistics or execution. The company may simply be better off spending its money elsewhere.</p>
<p>The streaming rights to individual games have gone for as much as $20 million in the past. And while Facebook has the cash to spend -- $18.4 billion at last count -- it would be better off spending resources on content with a longer lifespan.</p>
<p>The company is reportedly courting celebrities to live-broadcast themselves using Facebook's newest video feature, offering some of them cash advances as an incentive. Facebook could use more cash to attract talent from competing platforms like YouTube. Such content has the added benefit of being replayable, so Facebook users could watch it multiple times, unlike NFL games.</p>
<p>Extra pointsIf Facebook does win the rights to Thursday Night Football, there's no guarantee that it will see a positive return on its investment, as there are several obstacles in the way. Nonetheless, it would add to Facebook's new focus on real-time content and help draw attention to Sports Stadium. Facebook might not have to turn a profit on the NFL rights if the games have a long-lasting impact on its live streaming video and sports ecosystems. Still, the safer play is to look elsewhere for video content.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/09/3-reasons-facebook-inc-should-not-be-bidding-on-nf.aspx" type="external">3 Reasons Facebook Inc Should Not Be Bidding on NFL Streaming Rights Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Adam Levy Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon.com. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com and Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends Verizon Communications. 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> | 3 Reasons Facebook Inc Should Not Be Bidding on NFL Streaming Rights | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/09/3-reasons-facebook-inc-should-not-be-bidding-on-nfl-streaming-rights.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>October's jobs report is expected to show a pickup in hiring from last month, and while it won't have an immediate bearing on the Fed's next interest rate decision, it could be one last economic pinata for the final days of the presidential election.</p>
<p>Economists expect to see 175,000 nonfarm payrolls, up from 156,000 in September. The unemployment rate is expected to fall to 4.9 percent from 5 percent, and average earnings are expected to rise by 0.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters.</p>
<p>Market strategists are quick to point out that the jobs report comes just days after this month's Fed meeting, and the Federal Open Market Committee will have the November employment report and other fresh data to consider at its Dec. 14 meeting. The Fed is widely expected to hike rates for the second time in 10 years in December, if financial conditions and the economy are strong enough.</p>
<p>"If it's a good number, he'll say it's fake. If it's a bad number, he'll have a field day with it."</p>
<p>The jobs data, therefore, may be of more use to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the campaign arena if it is either very weak or very strong.</p>
<p>"If it's anything like the GDP report, it helps her. … If it's a good number, he'll say it's fake. If it's a bad number, he'll have a field day with it," said Greg Valliere, chief global strategist at Horizon Investments. Valliere said the number could be more important for Clinton than Trump. "First of all, she needs something to deflect attention away from the slump she's in."</p>
<p>The jobs data is released at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday, and if it's weaker than expected it could hurt risk assets, like stocks. Treasury yields would fall, which they have been doing this week as Trump has gained in the polls.</p>
<p>Stocks on Longest Losing Streak Since Financial Crisis</p>
<p>Stocks on Thursday were lower for an eighth day, the longest losing streak in the S&amp;P 500 since October of 2008. The S&amp;P fell 9 points to 2,088, breaking key support at 2,097 and now just 6 points above its 200-day moving average. The Dow was down 28 at 17,930, a four-month low.</p>
<p>"I think as a notion, there's less emphasis on the employment report over the election results," said Ian Lyngen, head U.S. rate strategist at BMO. "You do have a presidential election that could in and of itself tighten financial conditions. I'm not quite surprised by the lack of interest in the employment series."</p>
<p>The move up in polls by Trump, amid new revelations about the FBI's investigation into Clinton emails, has helped flatten the yield curve, said Lyngen. Markets have been wary of a Trump presidency since he is less of a known factor, and some of his positions, such as on trade, are seen as potentially harmful to the U.S. and global economy.</p>
<p>But while the markets have been somewhat comfortable with the idea of a Clinton victory, there is also concern that she would be weakened by ongoing investigations by the FBI and potentially by Congress.</p>
<p>"The markets are scared you could see a material tightening of financial conditions without the Fed doing anything," said Lyngen. Fed watchers have said the likelihood of a Fed rate hike in December would diminish dramatically if markets react violently to the election.</p>
<p>Most Expect Decent Numbers</p>
<p>The jobs number, however, does have a chance of being a bright spot.</p>
<p>"I'm looking for 190,000, a little warmer," said Diane Swonk, CEO of DS Economics. "Retailers are hiring a little earlier than they were. They have pulled ahead hiring to try to compete. It's a sign of a tighter labor market." Swonk said online retailers have already been adding staff to distribution centers ahead of the holidays.</p>
<p>"Consumer confidence surveys show the current situation is fine. Employment is fine. It's the expectations that have deteriorated, which you could expect to see, given how ugly this election has gotten," said Swonk.</p>
<p>Bank of America Merrill Lynch is looking for 170,000 nonfarm payrolls.</p>
<p>"That's kind of like a Goldilocks number right now. It looks like the labor force participation rate has finally turned higher. If we can mark time with an unemployment rate of 5 percent and decent job growth for a while, it's the best thing that could happen to this economy. It's one of the better stories in the economy right now," said Ethan Harris, chief global economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "People are coming back to work. Wages are starting to pick up. I think the labor market is going to confirm it's one of the bright spots right now."</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs economists say they are looking for 185,000 jobs. The economists noted that much of the slowing in September was focused on state and local government employment, education and health care employment. Those areas added just 14,000 jobs in September, down from their 12 month average of 61,000. "A partial rebound in these sectors — with other sectors steady — would be enough to lift payroll growth into the high-100k range," they wrote in a note.</p> | Jobs Report Is the Final Pinata Before Election Day | false | http://nbcnews.com/business/markets/jobs-report-final-pinata-election-day-n677856 | 2016-11-04 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>On the day before Christmas, retailers turned shoppers’ attention to the day after the holiday.</p>
<p>Amazon.com already is offering “after Christmas” deals of up to 70 percent off clothes and 60 percent off some electronics. Old Navy is running TV ads that its “after-holiday sale starts early” with discounts of up to 75 percent off. And CVS was selling a wine cabinet for $10 off at $39.99 and three fleece throws for $9.99 on Christmas Eve.</p>
<p>Heather Nadler, 38, stopped by the CVS in Decatur, Ga., on Tuesday, searching for stuffed animals for her children. But she still plans to hit up sales after Christmas.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I’ll probably start shopping for me at that point,” she said.</p>
<p>Stores usually wait until after Christmas to offer discounts of up to 70 percent or more on holiday merchandise that didn’t sell. But Americans who are still worried about the economy have held tightly to their purse strings this year, and store sales have fallen for the past three consecutive weeks.</p>
<p>The pre-Christmas deals come as retailers are feeling pressure to attract Americans into stores during the final week of what’s typically the busiest shopping period of the year. The two-month stretch that begins on Nov. 1 is important because retailers can make up to 40 percent of their annual sales during that time.</p>
<p>Sales at U.S. stores dropped 3.1 percent to $42.7 billion for the week that ended on Sunday compared with the same week last year, according to ShopperTrak, which tracks data at 40,000 locations. That follows a decline of 2.9 percent and 0.8 percent during the first and second weeks of the month, respectively.</p>
<p>Stores had a problem even getting Americans into stores, let alone getting them to spend. The number of shoppers fell 21.2 percent during the week that ended on Sunday, according to ShopperTrak.</p>
<p>Karen McDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers, which owns or operates 28 malls, estimated that business for the week that ended Sunday was unchanged to mid-single digit percentage growth compared with a year ago. McDonald said business “was just OK.”</p>
<p>Overall, ShopperTrak estimates that holiday sales at stores so far are up 2 percent to $218.4 billion compared with the same period last year. That’s below the 2.4 percent forecast for the two-month period, but the company is standing by that estimate with a little over a week left before the season ends.</p>
<p>The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail group, also said it’s sticking with its forecast that sales in stores and online will be up 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In order to get that growth, stores have tried all they can to lure shoppers in. For instance, at the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, N.J. over the weekend, Abercrombie &amp; Fitch, AnnTaylor and Express had 50 percent sales. Gap offered up to 60 percent off. And Steve Madden had a buy one, get the second pair at 75 percent off.</p>
<p>Stores, which typically don’t discuss their discount strategy during the season, are hoping the sales will lure last-minute shoppers like Rubi Cuautle, 36, a restaurant manager. Cuautle headed to Target in Atlanta on Tuesday to shop for toys and pajamas for her nieces and nephews. “It’s crunch time,” she said</p>
<p>But some analysts doubt the discounts will be enough to save the season. Research firm Retail Metrics predicts December revenue in stores open at least one year, a key retail metric, will rise 2.8 percent, slightly higher than last year’s 2.6 percent increase.</p>
<p>Ken Perkins, the president of Retail Metrics, said reports suggest that the final weekend before Christmas “did not generate the final crush of shoppers necessary to save the holiday season.”</p>
<p>At least one shopper isn’t impressed by the early deals. David Arnold, 43, who works in IT at a bank, said despite earlier “after Christmas” sales, he plans to go out after Christmas because he’s been eyeing a 55-inch TV at Wal-Mart.</p>
<p>“For a 55-inch, the lowest I saw of a good brand name was $1200,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll find a better deal after Christmas, I want to pay like $800.”</p>
<p>—-</p>
<p>Mae Anderson reported from Atlanta and Anne D’Innocenzio reported from New York.</p> | After Christmas begins before the holiday | false | https://abqjournal.com/325978/after-christmas-begins-before-the-holiday.html | 2 |
|
<p>The NFL regular season wrapped up on Sunday with division opponents squaring off against each other, as home-field advantage, first-round byes, division titles – and the final AFC and NFC playoff spots – hung in the balance. And in dramatic fashion (is there any other kind in the NFL?), several teams made emphatic statements in winning, while others disappointed their fanbases by losing. Perhaps most notably, the Carolina Panthers became the final remaining NFC playoff team, winning the much maligned NFC South division in a winner-take-all showdown against the Atlanta Falcons, 34-3. In the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens earned the final conference playoff spot by defeating the Cleveland Browns, 20-10.</p>
<p>But with so many key games and different playoff implications at stake on Sunday, it is important to identify key winners and losers from yesterday’s gridiron action. Please note that the following evaluations are based upon several factors, including&#160; a team’s roster (talent), and what the team was fighting to win (playoff spot, division title, etc.). And on a day with so much drama unfolding, it is fitting that there are several teams that emerged as “winners,” while others were “losers.”</p>
<p>Winners</p>
<p>Seattle Seahawks:&#160;Over the last month+, the defending Super Bowl champions have regained their swagger, and have announced to the rest of the NFL that they are most definitely back. In addition, the road to this year’s Super Bowl might well run through the city of coffee and grunge, as the Seahawks locked up a the NFC West division, a first-round bye, and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs – for the second consecutive year – by defeating the St. Louis Rams, 20-6, in Seattle.</p>
<p>The ‘Hawks overcame a sluggish, inconsistent first half of the season to win their final six games, finishing 12-4. And just like last year’s Super Bowl-winning squad, Seattle is riding dynamic quarterback Russell Wilson’s play-making, overpowering running back Marshawn Lynch’s legs, and its intimidating defense to wins. The Seahawks are poised to become the first repeat Super Bowl champions since the 2003-2004 New England Patriots.</p>
<p>Green Bay Packers:&#160;Although the Pack failed to clinch the no. 1 seed in the NFC, Aaron Rodgers and co. bested division rival the Detroit Lions at home, 30-20, to grab the NFC North title from the Lions. By winning, Green Bay becomes the no. 2 seed in the NFC, securing a first-round bye. This might prove to be especially important since Rodgers, the Packers quarterback some expect to win his second MVP award, temporarily left the game with an injury. (He returned to action and, in typical Rodgers form, engineered two touchdown drives in the second half).</p>
<p>The Packers won their fourth straight NFC North crown, leaving the Lions at 11-5 and as the no. 5 seed in the NFC. The Packers have beaten the Lions every year at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field since 1991, the longest active home winning streak against an opponent in the league. Detroit will now travel to take on the Dallas Cowboys next weekend in the NFC Wild Card round.</p>
<p>Dallas Cowboys:&#160;The team did not earn one of the two first-round byes that was available, but Dallas did everything it could in a 44-17 drubbing over fellow NFC East team the Washington Redskins. The Cowboys looked unstoppable on offense, as quarterback Tony Romo, running back DeMarco Murray, and wide receiver Dez Bryant capped off record-setting years by embarrassing the porous ‘Skins defense. For first time in franchise history, Dallas scored 40 or more points in four consecutive games. In its convincing victory against Washington, the team is entering the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the league, and is hitting its stride when previous Cowboys teams have failed. The Cowboys had lost three win-or-go-home games to end the regular season the past three years, failing to make the playoffs those years. Yet head coach Jason Garrett and his team look as dangerous as any NFC team to go on a deep run into the playoffs.</p>
<p>Carolina Panthers:&#160;The Panthers appeared completely dead not too long ago, it seems, as the team had fallen to a 3-8-1 record, one that almost assuredly would end seasons. Yet because the Panthers play in the awful NFC South, its playoff hopes remained alive. And the team won four games in a row to win the weak division, including dominant road victories against division foes the Saints and the Falcons. Quarterback Cam Newton and head coach Ron Rivera enter the playoffs with a 7-8-1 record, but the team will host a playoff game next weekend against the 11-5 Arizona Cardinals.</p>
<p>Baltimore Ravens:&#160;The Ravens won the AFC’s sixth and final playoff spot by beating the offensively-challenged Cleveland Browns, 20-10, at home. The Browns were playing former practice squad quarterback Connor Shaw as starter due to injuries to quarterbacks Brian Hoyer and Johnny Manziel. Even though the Ravens trailed 10-3, its seasoned team – which made the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years – managed to score 17 fourth quarter points en route to the victory. The Ravens earned the spot not only by beating Cleveland, but also due to help from the San Diego Chargers, who lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 19-7.</p>
<p>Losers</p>
<p>Atlanta Falcons:&#160;The Falcons boast some of the most talented players in the league, particularly on offense, with quarterback Matt Ryan, and wide receivers Julio Jones and Roddy White. Yet the team got shelled by the Panthers, 34-3, at home no less. It needed a win to clinch the shoddy NFC South title, yet it surrendered six sacks and two interception returns for touchdowns. Head coach Mike Smith survived a disastrous 2013 season of 4-12 largely because his team suffered numerous injuries last year, including ones to Pro Bowl receivers Jones and White. He also had helped put the Falcons back on the NFL map, so to speak, following the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal, and the failed Bobby Petrino-as-head coach experiment. But with two consecutive losing seasons, Smith might well have coached his final game on the Falcons sideline.</p>
<p>San Diego Chargers:&#160;The Chargers were in the best position of any of the remaining AFC playoff hopefuls: they, unlike the Ravens, Houston Texans, or their opponent (the Kansas City Chiefs), were the only team that could clinch the no. 6 seed by simply winning. Yet the Chargers completely whiffed, losing 19-7 at Kansas City. Losing to Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium is no embarrassment, as Arrowhead is notoriously one of the most difficult road stadiums in which to play. Yet quarterback Philip Rivers threw two interceptions as San Diego lost to Kansas City and its backup quarterback, Chase Daniel. It controlled its own destiny, had everything to play for, but failed miserably.</p>
<p /> | NFL playoff teams finally set as Panthers, Ravens punch their tickets | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/12/29/nfl-playoff-teams-finally-set-as-panthers-ravens-punch-their-tickets/ | 2014-12-29 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Shares of Tesla Motors jumped as much as 9 percent before the opening bell on Friday and were set to open at their highest in six months after the electric car maker said orders for its new Model 3 sedan had sped past 130,000 in the first 24 hours.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Model 3, Tesla's first car aimed at the mass market, was unveiled by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday.</p>
<p>A survey by brokerage Evercore ISI ahead of the unveiling showed that investors had expected about 55,000 orders during the first 72 hours and 117,000 by the end of the year.</p>
<p>The sleek four-door car, which will travel 215 miles on a single charge, will go into production next year and be ready for deliveries in the United States in late 2017 at a starting price of $35,000.</p>
<p>Many analysts consider the Model 3 to be a make-or-break product for Tesla, whose stock price has soared 60 percent since hitting a 12-month low in February.</p>
<p>The Model 3 unveiling "exceeded all expectations," Evercore ISI analyst George Galliers said in a client note.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"To us the vehicle is 'the game changer' and will likely play a critical role in Elon Musk's desire to expedite the auto industry's transition from internal combustion engine to electric."</p>
<p>"Yet again, it seems that investors are expecting Tesla to tear up the rule book," he said.</p>
<p>The Model 3 is crucial for Tesla to reach its goal of selling 500,000 cars per year by 2020.</p>
<p>Tesla, which was established in 2003, had sold less than 110,000 vehicles in its history through December, Sanford C. Bernstein analysts noted.</p>
<p>"In 24 hours, Tesla surfaced as many serious buyers as it has converted into customers in its existence," Bernstein analyst Mark Newman said in a research note. "That is the opportunity the car maker is tapping into."</p>
<p>Those ordering the car - many of whom had queued up in the hundreds outside Tesla stores - were required to put down a refundable deposit of $1,000.</p>
<p>Tesla's shares were trading $246 before the opening bell after closing at $229.77 on Thursday.</p>
<p>Analysts believe that most of the orders for the Model 3 were placed before its unveiling, and they expect orders to pick up at a steady pace over the coming months.</p>
<p>One driver will be price.</p>
<p>The Model 3 is more affordable than comparable cars from BMW AG and Mercedes, Galliers said, noting that BMW had sold 444,000 of its 3-Series cars and Mercedes about 470,000 C-Class vehicles last year.</p>
<p>The Model 3 will also compete with General Motors' Chevrolet Bolt EV, which is expected to launch later this year.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian and Ted Kerr)</p> | Tesla Shares Surge as Model 3 Orders Top Estimates | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/01/tesla-shares-surge-as-model-3-orders-top-estimates.html | 2016-04-01 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Amazon.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Two retail giants are introducing shoppers to new retail formats over the coming months. Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) just launched its first pair of Pickup and Fuel locations, and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced plans to open a checkout-free convenience shop.</p>
<p>Wal-Mart designed Pickup and Fuel locations as a place for online shoppers to pick up grocery orders and fill up on gas at the same time. Amazon's futuristic Amazon Go convenience store (coming in 2017) has shoppers scan an app upon entry. Anything they walk out of the store with is charged to their Amazon account.</p>
<p>It's not clear whether Amazon's "Go" store format is a sign of things to come from Amazon, but it's certainly drawing a lot of attention. How could it not? The entire thing sounds like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey. At the very least, Amazon Go will get more people to associate Amazon with food and groceries.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Amazon has been slow to roll out its Prime Fresh grocery-delivery service to more markets. While many point to it being held back by infrastructure limitations, the more plausible argument is that people just aren't ready to order their groceries online. At least, not from Amazon. If Amazon saw demand, it would build the refrigerated warehouses it needed. Jeff Bezos has never been shy about spending a lot of money on capital expenses.</p>
<p>The market for groceries and convenience items in the United States is huge -- about $1 trillion. For reference, Amazon's sales in all of North America last year totaled $63.7 billion. Even taking a small percentage of the market would mean a lot to Amazon.</p>
<p>So, Amazon needs to get more people to associate its brand with groceries. Amazon Go may be more of a publicity stunt than a viable nationwide retail concept, but either way, it achieves the goal of getting more people to consider ordering groceries from Amazon.</p>
<p>Contrary to Amazon Go, Wal-Mart's Pickup and Fuel concept seems extremely scalable. Wal-Mart has quickly expanded its online grocery pickup service to 100 markets, adding about 30 markets in the second quarter and about 40 more in the third quarter. It, of course, benefits from its existing Supercenter locations, so the demand for Wal-Mart to enter a market doesn't need to be nearly as great as it does for Amazon.</p>
<p>Pickup and Fuel capitalizes on several of Wal-Mart's strengths. First is its ability to provide convenience. Wal-Mart grew to become the largest grocery in the nation because shoppers can do their grocery shopping and get anything else they need all under one roof. Pickup and Fuel allows customers to fill up on gas while someone loads their car with groceries. Two birds, one stone.</p>
<p>Second, Wal-Mart is able to take advantage of its existing gasoline operations tied to Sam's Club locations. Wal-Mart could even offer the marginally lower price on fuel it offers Sam's Club members for customers picking up orders.</p>
<p>Wal-Mart has a lot of work to do to get people to think of it as a place for online shopping. However, it's in a good position to leverage its strength in groceries to get people to do more shopping on its app or website. That behavior could translate into non-grocery purchases online as well. And customers can pick up those purchases at the same Pickup and Fuel location as their groceries.</p>
<p>Both Wal-Mart and Amazon have a lot of work to do to get shoppers to change their behavior online. Each have their relative strengths, and these new retail formats showcase them. Amazon Go feels more like a publicity grabber to get more people to associate its brand with groceries, but Wal-Mart's Pickup and Fuel is easily scaled and could provide ongoing incentives (gas discounts) for customers to start shopping for groceries on Walmart.com or its app.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Wal-Mart Stores When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=85f86228-5cd2-41fe-b7b7-3629541efcc5&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 Wal-Mart Stores 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=85f86228-5cd2-41fe-b7b7-3629541efcc5&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 Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx" type="external">Adam Levy Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon.com. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Who Will Win Online Grocery Shopping: Amazon or Wal-Mart? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/10/who-will-win-online-grocery-shopping-amazon-or-wal-mart.html | 2016-12-10 | 0 |
<p>Officials with Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday defended their handling of the notification of family members on the presumed final fate of missing Flight MH370.</p>
<p>At a press conference held in Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya first gave his condolences to the family members of the passengers and noted, "It must be remembered that 13 of our own colleagues were also on board."</p>
<p>Regarding the text messages that some relatives got from the airline on Monday, Yahya said the company's "sole motivation" was to make sure the victims' families "heard the news before the world did."</p>
<p>"Wherever humanly possible, we did so in person with the families or by telephone, using SMS as the last resort," he said.</p>
<p>Airline officials also said that preparations were being made to provide the families with more than the $5,000 they were already set to receive as compensation, and to shuttle families to the recovery zone in Australia when possible.</p>
<p>Malaysian officials also noted some 40 extra "caregivers" have been trained to assist the passengers' families.</p>
<p>Australian officials earlier had said that visas for family members looking to be as close to the search zone as possible would be expedited.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, when asked if they would resign in the wake of the handling of the investigation, Malaysia Airlines officials said they were considering it, but it was a personal decision.</p> | Malaysia Airlines Officials Defend Notification Process | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/malaysia-airlines-officials-defend-notification-process-n61171 | 2014-03-25 | 3 |
<p>Jan 25 (Reuters) - Cabot Microelectronics Corp:</p>
<p>* CORP REPORTS STRONG RESULTS, INCLUDING RECORD REVENUE, FOR FIRST QUARTER OF FISCAL 2018</p> * Q1 GAAP LOSS PER SHARE $0.12
<p>* Q1 REVENUE $140 MILLION VERSUS I/B/E/S VIEW $137.9 MILLION</p>
<p>* Q1 EARNINGS PER SHARE VIEW $1.02 — THOMSON REUTERS I/B/E/S</p>
<p>* Q1 NON-GAAP EARNINGS PER SHARE $1.19</p>
<p>* ‍EFFECTIVE TAX RATE FOR Q1 WAS 108.4% VERSUS 20.3% IN SAME QUARTER LAST YEAR​</p>
<p>* CABOT MICROELECTRONICS-‍SEES ITS EFFECTIVE TAX RATE FOR REST OF FISCAL YEAR TO BE WITHIN RANGE OF 21 TO 24%; HAD EARLIER EXPECTED IT TO BE 24 TO 27 % FOR FY Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will expel 23 Russian diplomats in response to a nerve toxin attack on a Russian ex-spy in southern England, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday, describing the attack as an unlawful use of force by Russia against the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>May said Britain would also introduce new measures to strengthen defenses against hostile state activities, freeze Russian state assets wherever there was evidence of a threat and downgrade its attendance at the soccer World Cup in Russia this summer.</p>
<p>Russia, which denies any involvement in the attack, called the measures announced by May “unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted” and warned Britain to expect retaliation.</p>
<p>Unlike when the United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and other actions in Ukraine, May did not name Russian individuals or companies that would be specifically targeted by sanctions.</p>
<p>Former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found unconscious on a bench in the genteel city of Salisbury on March 4 and remain in hospital in a critical condition. A police officer was also harmed and remains in a serious condition.</p>
<p>Skripal betrayed dozens of Russian agents to Britain before being arrested in Moscow and later jailed in 2006. He was freed under a spy swap deal in 2010 and took refuge in Britain.</p>
<p>May has said the Skripals were attacked with Novichok, a Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent. She had asked Moscow to explain whether it was responsible for the attack or had lost control of stocks of the highly dangerous substance.</p>
<p>“Their response demonstrated complete disdain for the gravity of these events,” May said in a statement to parliament.</p>
<p>“They have treated the use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe with sarcasm, contempt and defiance.</p>
<p>“There is no alternative conclusion, other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter, and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury, including Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.</p>
<p>“This represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”</p>
<p>(Graphic: <a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2FjA6EQ" type="external">tmsnrt.rs/2FjA6EQ</a>)</p> Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the House of Commons on her government's reaction to the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, in London, March 14, 2018. Parliament TV handout via REUTERS ONE WEEK TO LEAVE BRITAIN
<p>May said the expulsion of the 23 diplomats, identified as undeclared intelligence officers, was the biggest single expulsion for over 30 years and would degrade Russian intelligence capabilities in Britain for years to come.</p>
<p>The expelled Russian diplomats have one week to leave Britain, May said, before listing other measures.</p>
<p>“We will freeze Russian state assets wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents,” she said.</p>
<p>She also said new legislative proposals would be urgently developed to counter any threat from a hostile state.</p>
<p>“This will include the addition of a targeted power to detain those suspected of hostile state activity at the UK border,” May said.</p> Slideshow (15 Images)
<p>British authorities would make use of existing powers to enhance efforts to monitor and track the intentions of those traveling to the UK who could be engaged in activities that represented a security threat.</p>
<p>“We will increase checks on private flights, customs and freight,” she said.</p>
<p>She also threatened action against those she described as “serious criminals and corrupt elites,” adding: “There is no place for these people, or their money, in our country.”</p>
<p>May said Britain would revoke an invitation to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit the country and suspend all planned high level bilateral contacts between London and Moscow.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-response-factbox/factbox-britain-to-freeze-russian-state-assets-and-expel-23-diplomats-after-nerve-attack-idUSKCN1GQ1TN" type="external">Factbox: Britain to freeze Russian state assets and expel 23 diplomats after nerve attack</a>
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-may-threats/britain-will-stand-up-to-any-threats-from-russia-says-pm-may-idUSKCN1GQ214" type="external">Britain will stand up to any threats from Russia, says PM May</a>
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-diplomacy-diplomats/uk-expulsion-of-envoys-unacceptable-and-short-sighted-russian-embassy-idUSKCN1GQ1Y0" type="external">UK expulsion of envoys unacceptable and short-sighted: Russian embassy</a>
<p>On the soccer World Cup, she said no ministers or members of the British royal family would attend.</p>
<p>May said Britain was not alone in confronting Russian aggression, saying that she had discussed the Salisbury attack with U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.</p>
<p>Donald Tusk, European Union council president, earlier voiced support for Britain and stood ready to put the attack on the agenda of a council meeting next week.</p>
<p>Britain asked for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to update members on the attack. Like Britain, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council.</p>
<p>May also said London had notified the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons about the use of the nerve agent. “We are working with the police to enable the OPCW to independently verify our analysis,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Costas Pitas, Estelle Shirbon, Guy Faulconbridge, Michael Holden, Elizabeth Piper and William James, additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in Moscow, writing by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Stephen Addison, William Maclean</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Students walked out of classrooms across the United States on Wednesday, waving signs and chanting their demands for tighter gun safety laws, joining a movement spearheaded by survivors of the deadly shooting spree at a Florida high school last month.</p>
<p>The #ENOUGH National School Walkout began at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) with 17-minute walkouts planned at 10 a.m. in each time zone, commemorating the 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. The massacre was the latest in a series of shootings that have plagued U.S. schools for nearly two decades.</p>
<p>Some students got in an early start. At Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York City, crowds of students poured into the streets of Manhattan, many dressed in orange, the color of the gun-control movement.</p>
<p>“Thoughts and prayers are not enough,” read one sign, needling the rote response many lawmakers make after mass shootings. At 10 a.m., the hundreds of students sat down on the sidewalk, filling half a city block, and fell silent.</p>
<p>In Parkland, thousands of students slowly filed onto the Stoneman Douglas school football field to the applause of families and supporters beyond the fences as law enforcement officers looked on. News helicopters thrummed overhead.</p>
<p>Ty Thompson, the school’s principal, called for the “biggest group hug,” and the students obliged around the 50-yard line.</p>
<p>The walkouts were part of a burgeoning, grassroots movement that grew out of the Parkland attack. Some of the survivors have lobbied state and federal lawmakers, and even met with President Donald Trump, to call for new restrictions on gun ownership, a right protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>“We don’t feel safe in schools anymore,” Sarah Chatfield said. A 15-year-old high school student from Maryland, Chatfield had joined a crowd of hundreds protesting outside the White House, with some sitting silent with their backs turned.</p>
<p>“Trump is talking about arming teachers with guns,” she said. “That is not a step in the right direction.”</p> Slideshow (34 Images)
<p>Soon after, some of the students began marching toward Capitol Hill. “Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go!” they chanted, referring to the powerful gun-rights interest group, the National Rifle Association.</p>
<p>The Parkland survivors’ efforts helped bring about a tightening of Florida’s gun laws last week, when the minimum age for buying any kind of gun was raised to 21 years from 18, although lawmakers there rejected a ban on the sort of semiautomatic rifle used in the Parkland attack.</p>
<p>In Washington, however, plans to strengthen the background-check system for gun sales, among other measures, appear to be languishing.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VIAB.O" type="external">Viacom Inc</a> 32.34 VIAB.O Nasdaq -0.26 (-0.80%) VIAB.O
<p>Students from more than 2,800 schools and groups are joining the walkouts, many with the backing of their school districts, according to the event’s organizers, who also coordinated the Women’s March protests staged nationwide over the past two years.</p>
<p>Support has also come from the American Civil Liberties Union and Viacom Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VIAB.O" type="external">VIAB.O</a>), which said all seven of its networks, including MTV, suspended programming on the East Coast during the 17-minute walkout there.</p>
<p>The protests took place a day after Florida prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Parkland attack.</p>
<p>The New York City Department of Education allowed students to participate if they submitted a signed permission slip from their parents.</p>
<p>But a few school districts around the country had warned against protests during school hours.</p>
<p>Administrators in Sayreville, New Jersey, told students that anyone who walked out of class would face suspension or other punishment, according to myCentralJersey.com.</p>
<p>Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen and Alice Popovici in New York, Joe Skipper and Bernie Woodall in Parkland, Florida, and Susan Heavey and Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>YANGON (Reuters) - Some international observers urged Myanmar on Wednesday not to drag out legal proceedings against two Reuters journalists, as they appeared in court for the 10th time since they were arrested in December and accused of possessing secret government papers.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone talks to reporters after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>A Yangon court began preliminary hearings in January to decide whether reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, will face charges under the colonial-era Officials Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.</p>
<p>Denmark’s embassy in Yangon, which has closely followed the case, said ahead of the latest hearing that the journalists should be “thanked and not punished” for their reporting on northern Rakhine state - where they found evidence of security forces’ involvement in the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men.</p>
<p>“Nor should they be subject to a dragged out trial that appears to be set to last for months while keeping Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo incarcerated, away from their families and their work,” the embassy said in a statement.</p>
<p>Two civilians that police brought to witness a search of Wa Lone’s family home the evening after the reporters were arrested gave testimony on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Min Min, a neighborhood official in north Yangon, told the court he joined nine or 10 policemen searching the residence and signed a form to confirm a laptop with a charger and a bag, a hard drive and a notebook were discovered there.</p>
<p>Asked by defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung during cross-examination whether any government papers were discovered in the search, he said no.</p>
<p>Min Aung, a ward administrator who joined the search and gave testimony, said he could not remember seeing police find official documents.</p>
<p>Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung left the court building before Reuters was able to put questions to him after the hearing. Government spokespeople have declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing court proceedings.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo is escorted by police as he arrives at a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>The government prosecutor has now called 12 of 25 listed witnesses to hearings that have been taking place weekly. The court agreed to hear three witnesses at its next session on March 21.</p> HELD IN CUSTODY
<p>Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in custody since their arrest on Dec. 12.</p> Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone is escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>The pair had been invited by police officers to a restaurant in northern Yangon. They have told family members they were arrested by plainclothes officers almost immediately after being handed some rolled up papers by the policemen, whom they had not met before.</p>
<p>Previous police witnesses have said they were stopped and searched at a traffic checkpoint by officers who were unaware they were journalists, and found to be holding in their hands documents relating to security force deployments in Rakhine.</p>
<p>Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, wearing handcuffs, were rushed in and out of court by police on Wednesday, giving them only a brief opportunity to talk to their families or reporters. Kyaw Soe Oo was prevented by police from hugging his young daughter.</p>
<p>Myanmar has denied accusations the two reporters were targeted over their reporting in Rakhine, where a security response to insurgent attacks has seen nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to Bangladesh since August.</p>
<p>Last week, responding to comments from U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein who said he strongly suspected “acts of genocide” had taken place in Rakhine, Myanmar’s national security advisor Thaung Tun said the country wanted to see “clear evidence” to support such allegations.</p>
<p>Sean Bain, a legal adviser in Myanmar for the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights group made up of 60 senior international judges, lawyers and legal academics, called for the case against the reporters to be dropped.</p>
<p>“The government has asked for ‘concrete evidence’ of alleged rights violations in Rakhine State,” said Bain, who attended Wednesday’s hearing. “These journalists produced it, but they remain imprisoned.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Simon Lewis and Shoon Naing; Additional reporting by Thu Thu Aung; Editing by Alex Richardson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a former double agent is a hostile and unjustified action, Russia’s embassy in London said on Wednesday.</p> Russia's flag flies from the consular section of its embassy, in central London, Britain March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Phil Noble
<p>Britain accuses Russia of being responsible for the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, southern England, but Russia denies involvement and says Britain is to blame for worsening relations between the two countries.</p>
<p>“We consider this hostile action as totally unacceptable, unjustified and short-sighted,” the Russian embassy said in a statement in reaction to the expulsion.</p>
<p>“All the responsibility for the deterioration of the Russia-UK relationship lies with the current political leadership of Britain,” it added.</p>
<p>Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Cabot Microelectronics Reports Q1 GAAP Loss Per Share Of $0.12 Britain expels 23 Russian diplomats over chemical attack on ex-spy U.S. students walk out of class in solidarity with Florida shooting victims Myanmar urged not to drag out case against Reuters reporters UK expulsion of envoys unacceptable and short-sighted: Russian embassy | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-cabot-microelectronics-reports-q1/brief-cabot-microelectronics-reports-q1-gaap-loss-per-share-of-012-idUSASB0C29V | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>Gold prices dropped to settle lower Tuesday, following a brief reprieve Monday, as the dollar strengthened and stocks edged higher. Gold for February delivery settled down $9.10, or 0.8%, at $1,133.60 an ounce as the U.S. Dollar index ticked up 0.1% to its highest levels since December 2002. On the other hand, silver for March delivery settled up 2.8 cents, or 0.2%, at just under $16.12 an ounce.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Gold Resumes Slide, Settles 0.8% Lower As Dollar Strengthens | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/20/gold-resumes-slide-settles-08-lower-as-dollar-strengthens.html | 2016-12-20 | 0 |
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination for an ambassador’s post will be resubmitted to the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>The Kansas City Star <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/article193600214.html" type="external">reports</a> the White House said Monday that Brownback is one of dozens of officials who will be renominated Monday by President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Brownback was first nominated last July to become ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom but the nomination was opposed by Democrats and LGBT groups.</p>
<p>He is one of dozens of officials who will be renominated by the president on Monday because they were not confirmed by the Senate after Democrats refused to allow their nominations to roll over into the new year.</p>
<p>It is not clear when a vote on Brownback’s nomination will occur.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Kansas City Star, <a href="http://www.kcstar.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kcstar.com" type="external">http://www.kcstar.com</a></p>
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination for an ambassador’s post will be resubmitted to the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>The Kansas City Star <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/article193600214.html" type="external">reports</a> the White House said Monday that Brownback is one of dozens of officials who will be renominated Monday by President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Brownback was first nominated last July to become ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom but the nomination was opposed by Democrats and LGBT groups.</p>
<p>He is one of dozens of officials who will be renominated by the president on Monday because they were not confirmed by the Senate after Democrats refused to allow their nominations to roll over into the new year.</p>
<p>It is not clear when a vote on Brownback’s nomination will occur.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Kansas City Star, <a href="http://www.kcstar.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.kcstar.com" type="external">http://www.kcstar.com</a></p> | Brownback to get another shot at Trump administration job | false | https://apnews.com/42f40ea8bad4418a916423f351e40372 | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
<p>As reported by the Washington Examiner, a study from Stony Brook University “has proven that CFLs do emit ultraviolet (UV) light rays that can harm human skin cells.”&#160; CFLs are compact fluorescent light bulbs – the expensive spiral light bulbs we have been forced to begin using, after incandescent light bulbs were regulated out of existence.</p>
<p>We already knew CFLs were dangerous if you drop them and break them.&#160; They contain mercury, so a complex hazardous-materials procedure is <a href="http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.pdf" type="external">recommended by the EPA</a> when they break.&#160; You don’t just sweep the broken glass up with a broom.&#160; The first three steps of the EPA procedure involve clearing people and pets out of the room where the CFL bulb was broken, airing it out for 5-10 minutes, and shutting down your central heating or air conditioning system to prevent poisonous mercury vapors from contaminating the house.&#160; Vacuum-cleaning the area where the bulb shattered would be a dangerous mistake, because it could spread mercury vapors.&#160; Oh, and plastic bags don’t fully contain those vapors, so be sure to get the bagged broken glass out of your house ASAP!&#160; The rest of the instructions run for a total of three pages.</p>
<p>But now it turns out these bulbs can be dangerous even when they don’t break.&#160; The problem is that CFL bulbs emit a high level of ultraviolet light, which is supposed to be trapped by the phosphor coating inside the glass.&#160; (The phosphor coating is what makes the glass of the light bulb appear to be milky white.)&#160; The phosphor glows, and light is emitted, with relatively little energy wasted as heat.</p>
<p />
<p>If the phosphor coating is cracked, UV rays escape from the bulb, causing damage to exposed skin cells from prolonged exposure at short ranges.&#160; A European study cited by the Examiner &#160;showed that prolonged exposure at distances of 8 inches or less “may approach the workplace limit set to protect workers from skin and retinal damage.”</p>
<p>The really bad news is that the Stony Brook University study found that all of the CFL light bulbs they studied had cracks in the phosphor coating.&#160; They purchased bulbs from different stores in two different counties, and every one of them emitted a significant level of ultraviolet radiation.&#160; Double-walled bulbs – the kind that feature a traditional light-bulb-shaped shell over the twisty CFL core – are considerably safer, as the outer shell absorbs excess UV radiation from imperfect phosphor coatings.</p>
<p>The risk of UV exposure from CFL bulbs is manageable – either use the double-layer bulbs, or take care to sit at a safe distance from lamps.&#160; Still, this seems like the sort of thing that would provoke some concern, if CFL bulbs had not already been sanctified by regulatory decree.&#160; Imagine, in the waning days of the incandescent bulb, if a secret three-page corporate memo outline elaborate safe procedures for the disposal of broken incandescent had been discovered, or a study had revealed that virtually every light bulb had a design flaw that caused it to emit potentially unsafe levels of radiation.</p>
<p /> | Study says energy-efficient light bulbs may emit harmful radiation | true | http://humanevents.com/2012/07/23/study-says-energy-efficient-light-bulbs-may-emit-harmful-radiation/?utm_source%3Dhefbp%26utm_medium%3Dfbpage%26utm_campaign%3Dheupdate | 2012-07-23 | 0 |
<p>Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed “regret” for recent comments she made criticizing Donald Trump in a statement released Thursday by the Supreme Court’s public information office, but stopped short of a full out apology to the presumptive GOP nominee.</p>
<p>“On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect,” Ginsburg said.</p>
<p />
<p>Last week, Ginsburg <a href="" type="internal">told the Associated Press</a> that she didn’t “want to think about” the possibility of Trump becoming president, adding that if he did, “then everything is up for grabs.”</p>
<p>She went even further in interviews with the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/us/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-no-fan-of-donald-trump-critiques-latest-term.html?_r=1" type="external">New York Times</a> — where she insinuated that she’d move to New Zealand if he was elected — and <a href="" type="internal">with CNN</a>, where she called Trump a “faker” and bashed him for not releasing his tax returns.</p> | Ruth Bader Ginsburg Expresses ‘Regret’ Over Trump Comments | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ginsburg-trump-apology | 4 |
|
<p>“4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”, the latest installment in new Romanian cinema, is definitely worth the hype and the excitement surrounding it. This is the movie that I’ve been waiting to see for months, and it did not disappoint. In fact, it far exceeded my expectations. Seeing it projected on the big screen was a cinematic treat that will definitely be the film high point of my year. This is the kind of movie that graces the big screen only ever so often anymore. It’s the kind of movie that is wrapped in a seeming minimal realism and simplicity, yet is so deep and complex that your mind can spin around it infinitely. Its hardcore realism, grimy de-aestheticized vision, condensed timeframe, and relentlessly shaking hand-held camera give the film a kind a kind of snapshop sensibility. At first the film’s style seems to mask the complexity that is delivered with a handful of characters who come together in the gritty Romanian landscape for one day. Likewise, given the primary subject matter of the movie ­ a girl obtaining an illegal abortion in communist Romania during the end of Ceau_escu’s communist regime ­ it is easy to reduce the movie to the Romanian Abortion Movie. But to reduce this film to its basic plot and simply call it an abortion movie is to deny it the complexity and brilliance that reside at its core. Sure this is an abortion movie, and the portrait of what a woman would go through to obtain an illegal abortion in communist Romania is harrowing and horrific, but the movie reaches beyond the subject of illegal abortion. Focusing not on the girl who actually gets the abortion but on her friend who helps her, the movie provides a claustrophobic journey of one woman caught in the tangled matrix of gender and class that permeate her life in communist Romania. The film is not just about abortion, but about the female body and how it’s coded by its gender and its social status on the class spectrum.</p>
<p>The basic plot of the film takes place in less than 24 hours when Otilia helps her college roommate Gabi obtain an illegal abortion. Structurally the film is very similar another recent Romanian film, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, <a href="" type="internal">which I wrote about recently</a>. Like in Lazarescu, the protagonist, in this case the friend Otilia, goes through a frenetic time-condensed journey and confronts ludicrous systems, class discrimination, neglect and/or abuse, medical nightmares, and a sense of overall disintegration. Oleg Mutu was cinematographer for both films, and his influence clearly is the binding glue between the two films. Mutu delivers an intentionally de-asetheticized vision, in which the ordinary minutiae of existence become symbolic of the overall corruption and dirt of the environment. Like in Lazarescu, the scenes are laden with the objects and set details of everyday life, and those seemingly innocuous and often outright ugly objects take on a kind of grisly meaning. A plastic table cloth, a telephone receiver, a sickly rose in a vase, a couple of fish in a tank, a plastic bag, toilet paper hanging from a roll, a bar of soap, a bath towel become ominous specters of a socio-political envirnoment that is in a state of corrupt decay. The exceptionally realistic sets combined with Mutu’s handheld camera and purely diegetic sound (all sound comes from within the narrative frame of the film) make for a sense that we are on an actual real-life journey with Otilia. The use of internal sound within the narrative is amazing — water dripping, cars passing, dogs barking, feet on stairs, the echoes of voices — and adds to our experience of inhabiting the camera and the literal space of the film as the camera relentlessly stalks Otilia down halls, through streets, on buses, in hotels, in cars, in bathrooms. As the camera shakes and tracks and documents Otilia, it demands that we pay witness, that we watch through the camera’s eye, that we actually become the camera as Otilia navigates her way through the obstacles and horrors that involve the abortion. In one incredible scene when Otilia first meets with the abortionist, the camera actually sits in the driver’s seat of the car while Otilia sits in the passenger seat watching the abortionist abuse an older woman (seemingly his mother). So we are witnessing Otilia as she witnesses another woman’s abuse.</p>
<p>This scene with the abortionist and the older woman is crucial to understanding that we are not just watching an abortion movie. The abortionist, who takes perverse pleasure in subjugating women, is a stand-in for an entire system of extreme patriarchy that subjugates women to horrific ends. The duration and framing of the abortion scene itself is simultaneously a harrowing and nightmarish document of the reality of getting an illegal abortion, but also a kind of distanced observation of women trying to maintain ground while their entire lives and bodies are being compromised by a brutal patriarchal system. While the handheld camera insists that we watch the scene from its eye, the endless dialogue and banter and tension is presented with clinical detachment. The pleasure with which the abortionist wields his power, rather than the abortion itself, is the real nightmare. The manipulative dialogue and cat-and-mouse play that he indulges in seems to go on forever. The camera witnesses the scene with its shaky yet steady eye and forces us to be locked in the room with the characters. The focus on the details of the room ­ the ugly painting over the bed, the hideous lamps, the suitcase, the bed cover ­ make our experience and sense of being trapped in the room all the more real. The fact that the abortionist not only gives the abortion but also forces the two young women to have sex with him moves the violation and consumption of the female body into a more global realm than just that of the abortion. The way that the sex scenes are filmed further removes the focus away from the abortion but to a more systematic consumption of the female body. We don’t see the sex occur on screen, but the emphasis is in the aftermath, particularly that of Otilia’s sexual violation. The scene in which Otilia washes her genitals after the sex seems more prolonged than Gabi’s actual abortion. Despite the fact that the movie centers on Gabi’s abortion, the film always returns to Otilia’s body and plight.</p>
<p>The emphasis on Otilia is critical to understanding the film as being more than just an abortion movie. The entire movie is not about the abortion per se but about Otilia being trapped in a matrix of obligation, gender, servitude, and class in her commitment to help Gabi obtain the abortion. The two women ­ Otilia and Gabi ­ are markedly different characters. Gabi is the total passive female body. She does nothing to help herself and depends entirely on Otilia to do everything for her. On the other hand, Otilia is the frenetically active female body who feels obligated to serve everyone ­ Gabi, the abortionist, her boyfriend. What is quietly implied and cannot be ignored is the class differentiation between Otilia and other characters in the film. Otilia’s sense of duty and obligation comes not only from her role as a female but also from her role as one of the lower classes or “simple folk” as her boyfriend’s family and friends refer to her. One of the critically tense moments in the film (and there are many which I will talk about in a bit) revolves around Otilia leaving Gabi in the hotel right after the abortion to attend a birthday party for her boyfriend’s mother. In a scene that plays on as agonizingly slowly as the actual abortion scene in the hotel, we see Otilia suffocating in ignorant classist banter around a dinner table. Seemingly silly jovial discussion is laden with patriarchal intent, class privilege, and gender and class discrimination. During this scene in which food and talk fly back and forth in front of Otilia’s resigned face, we learn not only of Otilia’s class difference (she is “simple country folk” as opposed to the “educated city folk”), but we get to see a microcosm of age old patriarchy and class hierarchies that remained firmly in place even under the guise of communism. We see a miniature window on a world where men call the shots, women cook potatoes, and the simple folk are subservient to the privileged.</p>
<p>What is less obvious is how Gabi fits into this picture of class hierarchies. The two women not only occupy different roles in regards to being active (Otilia) and passive (Gabi), but it is evident through Gabi’s accent, her physical traits, and her overall sense of entitlement and privilege that there is also a class division between Otilia and Gabi. When I went to the movie the first time, I overheard many people talking about Gabi being “selfish.” Clearly she is not a sympathetic character, and we are left uneasy with her manipulation and disregard of Otilia. What isn’t overtly obvious but is embedded within the “code” of the film is that Gabi’s sense of entitlement is a result of her ancestry coming from a privileged class. The scene right after the abortion when Gabi’s legs reside passively at the bottom of the frame while the camera focuses on Otilia’s stress ravaged face beautifully and quietly shows the divide between the women. Otilia’s body is a map of tension and anxiety while Gabi lies passively smoking Otilia’s last cigarette. Though the abortion is performed on Gabi’s body, Otilia performs all the labor associated with the abortion. She makes arrangements with the abortionist, obtains a hotel, disposes of the fetus while Gabi does nothing, and what she tries to do is completely ineffectual. The entire movie centers on Otilia’s service to Gabi because Gabi couldn’t possibly endure the lowly interactions necessary to obtain the abortion. Otilia is the workhorse, and in fact the movie is more a day in the life of Otilia’s labor and service to Gabi than an actual abortion movie.</p>
<p>The fact that the film is an “abortion movie” that sets us up for horror and melodrama but then doesn’t deliver what we expect further subverts the idea that this film is simply a “pro-choice” movie. The film repeatedly sets us up for shocking Abortion Horror. When Otilia returns to the hotel and Gabi doesn’t answer the door, we expect to find Gabi in a pool of blood, but instead we find her quiet body in bed. When Gabi doesn’t move when Otilia calls to her, we expect her to be dead, but instead she stirs awake and says non-chalantly in regards to the fetus, “It came out. It’s in the bathroom.” The scene when Otilia disposes of the fetus is filmed as a horror narrative. The camera follows her frantically through the dark streets as she carries around the dead fetus in a bag looking for a place to get rid of it. We are set-up to think she is being stalked, robbed, or attacked by dogs, but none of that happens. Instead she throws the baby down a garbage chute with a sickening bump and thud. After Otilia disposes of the fetus and returns to the hotel and Gabi doesn’t answer the door, we again expect to find Gabi dead in a pool of blood. Instead we find her in a restaurant eating a plateful of meat. The interesting thing is that all the expected melodrama and horror is from Otilia’s perspective, and none of it comes from Gabi. It is Otilia’s perspective that lends the sense of threat, tragedy and horror to the film whereas Gabi just assumes everything can be fixed (by Otilia). This division in perception itself is a class signifier. Melodrama and horror are genres (and realities) of the simpler folk. The privileged folk assume that their worries will be taken care of by virtue of their social status.</p>
<p>The ending of the film is a beautiful capsule of the real horror of the film. Gabi and Otilia sit in the restaurant and agree to “never talk about this again.” In the meanwhile, we hear and see a wedding party going on in the next room affirming a system of matrimony and patriarchy. Otilia turns and looks right at the camera and at us (because in this movie we, the audience, are the camera) as if to say, “So yes, this is how it is.” The resigned acknowledgment in Otilia’s face is the real horror of the film — that life was and is like this; that woman are subject to violation and an impossible set of moral codes, obligations, and subservience; that class hierarchies persist even in the guise of communism; that tomorrow will be another day and today was one just like any other despite the horror. As Otilia looks us in the eye, we catch the reflection of headlights on the restaurant window and realize that Otilia and Gabi are trapped behind the glass, their bodies on display, caught between the wedding and the camera.</p>
<p>Yes, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days is an abortion movie. But it is also much more. We would be remiss in our appreciation of the complexity of the film if we didn’t look closely at everything in the movie that is not the abortion because it is in the fringe scenes, the set details, the plight of Otilia and the interactions of all the characters where we can excavate much bigger global issues in relation to class and gender. Not only that, then we can really experience and acknowledge what a truly great film this is.</p>
<p>Kim Nicolini is an artist, poet and cultural critic living in Tucson, Arizona. Her writing has appeared in Bad Subjects, Punk Planet, Souciant, La Furia Umana, and The Berkeley Poetry Review. She recently published her first book, Mapping the Inside Out, in conjunction with a solo gallery show by the same name. She can be reached at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/03/22/class-gender-and-abortion-in-communist-romania/ | 2008-03-22 | 4 |
<p>After spring’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s administration created the position of minister for reconstruction and looked to appointee Ryu Matsumoto to help the recovery effort on several levels. That didn’t turn out so well.</p>
<p>As it happened, Matsumoto’s tenure lasted all of one week, ending with his resignation announcement Tuesday. Turns out his diplomacy skills were severely lacking, which was the last thing Kan needed from his last line of PR defense. Now, the prime minister himself is expected to step down and says he will as soon as some reconstruction-related bills are passed. –KA</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>Japan’s Minister for Reconstruction Ryu Matsumoto has announced his resignation after just a week in the job.</p>
<p />
<p>He had been widely criticised for making insensitive remarks to governors of areas badly affected by March’s deadly earthquake and tsunami.</p>
<p>He had said the government would not help them financially unless they came up with good rebuilding proposals.</p>
<p>The resignation will increase pressure on Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s already unpopular government.</p>
<p>The appointment of Mr Matsumoto to the newly created post of disaster reconstruction minister was seen as an effort to deflect further criticism of Mr Kan’s administration.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14024206" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Japanese Reconstruction Minister Creates PR Disaster, Quits | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/japanese-reconstruction-minister-creates-pr-disaster-quits/ | 2011-07-05 | 4 |
<p>The world we live in is not a Christian world. The culture we live in is not a Christian culture. Christendom — the time when Christianity culturally prevailed — is dead. Perhaps we were once more Christian than we are now, perhaps we were never as “Christian” as some of us assumed or were taught.</p>
<p>In many ways, the American church, including our own, is in uncharted territory. Part of the loss of “cultural Christianity,” is that people (mostly) no longer order their lives around the church, or any community of faith. Schools schedule extra-curricular activities on Wednesday nights and even Sunday mornings. Perhaps we are naïve to expect people to be loyal to the institutional church — in attendance, in giving, in caring about the brand.</p>
<p>We are in uncharted territory in terms of how people perceive faith. While many aren’t committed to a church of any kind, spirituality and interest in spiritual things is through the roof. Sermons and weekend worship services may not be the best method of sharing the gospel with our community if people increasingly don’t come to worship. One of the surest church growth strategies has always been to “invite a friend.” While that certainly may still work, the reality is that many people in our area may never enter the doors of a church on Sunday morning, yet they still need the Good News of Jesus Christ. We can no longer place all our eggs in the Sunday morning basket.</p>
<p>I’m currently in conversation with pastors from around Virginia about these issues, and I’m not sure whether to be comforted or frightened to know that at least we’re not alone. City churches, and suburban churches, and rural churches like my own are all experiencing this shift.</p>
<p>In his book, Canoeing the Mountains — Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory, Tod Bolsinger writes that “In a Christendom world, vision was about seeing possibilities ahead and communicating excitement. In uncharted territory — where no one knows what’s ahead — vision is about accurately seeing ourselves and defining reality.” How do we see ourselves as a church? How do we see our community? Mission begins with seeing and hearing, not only God’s heart and Spirit, but ourselves, and our neighbors.</p>
<p>Whatever vision and future God is calling us toward, it’s got to be more than naming a bunch of possibilities and then drumming up excitement. Maybe the vision God has for our church begins with some raw honesty about the reality of our own lives, and the reality of the communities we live in. When we’re truly honest, we become vulnerable, which is exactly when God begins to move in mighty ways.</p>
<p>Are we, however, truly willing to become vulnerable? Safety is always more comfortable.</p>
<p>“Thoughts and prayers,” after another mass shooting, seems safe, stale, vanilla. Anything but vulnerable.</p>
<p>“Poverty isn’t an issue in our town” masks reality for too many of us, who aren’t yet willing to look our impoverished neighbors in the face. That’s not vulnerability.</p>
<p>“They certainly don’t love Jesus if they voted for ______.” Divisive and small minded. Anger filled. Partisan. But not vulnerable.</p>
<p>“Racism isn’t a problem here. Everybody in our town gets along just fine.” Well meaning. Optimistic. Maybe even white-washed. But not vulnerable.</p>
<p>“We don’t need to change our programs. If people took God seriously they would come to us.” Naïve. Prideful. Christendom-driven. But certainly not vulnerable.</p>
<p>The beauty of the incarnation is that the God of all creation became vulnerable in taking on human form, taking on the image of ones created in God’s likeness. There is nothing more vulnerable than Jesus, laughing with disciples, weeping the loss of a beloved friend, or hanging on a cross to die. Out of love, not only did God become vulnerable to the pains of humanity, God became vulnerable to the fallen nature of humanity. Even while never sinning, Christ was impacted every day by living in a fallen world.</p>
<p>Where are the churches willing to model that vulnerability? I’ll tell you what they look like. They have given up on Christendom. They have given up on the notion that they hold some place of privilege in our culture. They have moved out of steepled buildings with gilded decoration and into neighborhoods. They are too few.</p>
<p>Christendom is dead. The sooner we all realize it the better. Until the church is ready to move from a posture of triumph and conquest to one of humility and listening, we’ll continue to sound tone deaf to the world.</p> | Christendom is dead. It’s time to be vulnerable. | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/christendom-dead-time-vulnerable/ | 3 |
|
<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers are reviewing the legislature’s sexual harassment policy after accusations of sexual misconduct led to the downfall of other lawmakers across the country.</p>
<p>The legislature has a rule that prohibits harassment of legislators and legislative employees and sets guidelines for reporting inappropriate behavior. The Legislative Council reviewed the policy at a meeting last month in Bozeman to consider whether changes are needed.</p>
<p>While Democrats who spoke felt there should be mandatory sexual harassment training, Republicans suggested sexual misconduct wasn’t really an issue at the Montana Legislature and the heightened awareness after the news of the last several months would keep things that way.</p>
<p>In the past year, at least 14 legislators in 10 states have resigned from office following accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct, The Associated Press found in a 50-state review. At least 16 others in more than a dozen states have faced other repercussions, such as the voluntary or forced removal from legislative leadership positions. Others are under investigation.</p>
<p>Susan Byorth Fox, executive director of Montana’s Legislative Services Division, told lawmakers on Dec. 13 that there had been no formal complaints of sexual misconduct made under the harassment rule. She said state legislative staffers have sought advice about dealing with inappropriate behavior and she has asked them if they’ve told the person they were offended.</p>
<p>“Things just seem to kind of take care of themselves,” Fox said, adding that she believes it’s best to handle such issues at the lowest level possible.</p>
<p>“The only thing I’d say on this is, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” said Senate President Scott Sales, a Republican from Bozeman.</p>
<p>Democratic Rep. Jenny Eck of Helena suggested the training be made mandatory with clear explanations of what constitutes sexual harassment, while Democratic Sen. Tom Facey of Missoula suggested lobbyists also be required to attend.</p>
<p>Sales said in the seven sessions he’s served in the Legislature, one complaint was brought to him “where an individual member was being more friendly to a staffer than they appreciated.” Sales said he handled it with a conversation and noted that was 10 years ago.</p>
<p>“I think we have a great track record if we don’t have any official complaints,” Sales said. “With the heightened visibility that the subject has, going forward I think there’s going to be less of this in the future. I think this is going to solve itself.”</p>
<p>House Speaker Austin Knudsen, a Republican from Culbertson, said he would support changing the current procedure so harassment complaints couldn’t be heard in public legislative hearings, but did not feel any other changes were needed.</p>
<p>“Right now, if you are a sitting legislator and are behaving in an inappropriate manner ... with what we’ve seen around the country, you are not going to be the legislature very long,” Knudsen said.</p>
<p>Eck countered that female legislators may have a different perception than male legislators “as to what the culture is in the Legislature.”</p>
<p>“I do think there is room for training. There is room for better understanding about what sexual harassment is, what a safe workplace is,” she said. “I don’t see any harm in expecting all our members to understand that.”</p>
<p>The Legislative Council asked legislative staffers to research what other states are doing and how the Montana rule might be changed to protect the privacy of people who report harassment or misconduct. The committee meets again in March.</p>
<p>HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers are reviewing the legislature’s sexual harassment policy after accusations of sexual misconduct led to the downfall of other lawmakers across the country.</p>
<p>The legislature has a rule that prohibits harassment of legislators and legislative employees and sets guidelines for reporting inappropriate behavior. The Legislative Council reviewed the policy at a meeting last month in Bozeman to consider whether changes are needed.</p>
<p>While Democrats who spoke felt there should be mandatory sexual harassment training, Republicans suggested sexual misconduct wasn’t really an issue at the Montana Legislature and the heightened awareness after the news of the last several months would keep things that way.</p>
<p>In the past year, at least 14 legislators in 10 states have resigned from office following accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct, The Associated Press found in a 50-state review. At least 16 others in more than a dozen states have faced other repercussions, such as the voluntary or forced removal from legislative leadership positions. Others are under investigation.</p>
<p>Susan Byorth Fox, executive director of Montana’s Legislative Services Division, told lawmakers on Dec. 13 that there had been no formal complaints of sexual misconduct made under the harassment rule. She said state legislative staffers have sought advice about dealing with inappropriate behavior and she has asked them if they’ve told the person they were offended.</p>
<p>“Things just seem to kind of take care of themselves,” Fox said, adding that she believes it’s best to handle such issues at the lowest level possible.</p>
<p>“The only thing I’d say on this is, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” said Senate President Scott Sales, a Republican from Bozeman.</p>
<p>Democratic Rep. Jenny Eck of Helena suggested the training be made mandatory with clear explanations of what constitutes sexual harassment, while Democratic Sen. Tom Facey of Missoula suggested lobbyists also be required to attend.</p>
<p>Sales said in the seven sessions he’s served in the Legislature, one complaint was brought to him “where an individual member was being more friendly to a staffer than they appreciated.” Sales said he handled it with a conversation and noted that was 10 years ago.</p>
<p>“I think we have a great track record if we don’t have any official complaints,” Sales said. “With the heightened visibility that the subject has, going forward I think there’s going to be less of this in the future. I think this is going to solve itself.”</p>
<p>House Speaker Austin Knudsen, a Republican from Culbertson, said he would support changing the current procedure so harassment complaints couldn’t be heard in public legislative hearings, but did not feel any other changes were needed.</p>
<p>“Right now, if you are a sitting legislator and are behaving in an inappropriate manner ... with what we’ve seen around the country, you are not going to be the legislature very long,” Knudsen said.</p>
<p>Eck countered that female legislators may have a different perception than male legislators “as to what the culture is in the Legislature.”</p>
<p>“I do think there is room for training. There is room for better understanding about what sexual harassment is, what a safe workplace is,” she said. “I don’t see any harm in expecting all our members to understand that.”</p>
<p>The Legislative Council asked legislative staffers to research what other states are doing and how the Montana rule might be changed to protect the privacy of people who report harassment or misconduct. The committee meets again in March.</p> | Montana lawmakers reviewing their sexual harassment policy | false | https://apnews.com/7462f3b816da46a0aa9066a014b0f070 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish media say a suspect accused of organizing a suicide bomb attack that killed 12 Germans has requested his release from jail, arguing that he needs to take care of his children who he says are at risk of joining the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>The court adjourned the trial against 26 people accused of involvement in the 2016 attack at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, a favorite spot for tourists, until Jan. 24.</p>
<p>The Dogan News Agency quoted Atala Al Hassan Al Mayyouf as requesting his release during Monday’s hearing. He faces a life term in prison.</p>
<p>The suicide bomber, a Syrian identified as Nabil Fadli, was believed to be affiliated with IS. &#160;</p>
<p>The deadly attack, one of several to rock Turkey since 2015, also wounded 15 people.</p>
<p>ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish media say a suspect accused of organizing a suicide bomb attack that killed 12 Germans has requested his release from jail, arguing that he needs to take care of his children who he says are at risk of joining the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>The court adjourned the trial against 26 people accused of involvement in the 2016 attack at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, a favorite spot for tourists, until Jan. 24.</p>
<p>The Dogan News Agency quoted Atala Al Hassan Al Mayyouf as requesting his release during Monday’s hearing. He faces a life term in prison.</p>
<p>The suicide bomber, a Syrian identified as Nabil Fadli, was believed to be affiliated with IS. &#160;</p>
<p>The deadly attack, one of several to rock Turkey since 2015, also wounded 15 people.</p> | Defendant in Istanbul bombing trial asks to be set free | false | https://apnews.com/78dd9bca50664dbc86af81f88ac2d36b | 2018-01-08 | 2 |
<p>1.&#160;Cruz&#160;is more fanatical.&#160;Sure, Trump is a bully and bigot, but he doesn’t hew to any sharp ideological line.&#160;Cruz&#160;is a fierce ideologue: He denies the existence of man-made climate change, rejects same-sex marriage, wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, believes the 2nd amendment guarantees everyone a right to guns. He doesn’t believe in a constitutional divide between church and state, favors the death penalty, rejects immigration reform, demands the repeal of Obamacare, and takes a strict “originalist” view of the meaning of the Constitution.</p>
<p>2.&#160;Cruz&#160;is a true believer. Trump has no firm principles except making money, getting attention, and gaining power. But&#160;Cruz&#160;has spent much of his life embracing radical right economic and political views.&#160;</p>
<p>3.&#160;Cruz&#160;is more disciplined and strategic.&#160;Trump is all over the place, often winging it, saying whatever pops into his mind.&#160;Cruz&#160;hews to a clear&#160;script&#160;and a carefully crafted strategy. He plays the long game (as he’s shown in Iowa).</p>
<p>4.&#160;Cruz&#160;is a loner who’s willing to destroy government institutions to get his way. Trump has spent his career using the federal government and making friends with big shots. Not&#160;Cruz.&#160;He has repeatedly led Republicans toward fiscal cliffs. In the Fall of 2013, his&#160;opposition to Obamacare led in a significant way to the shutdown of the federal government.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[reposted from&#160; <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/139677457615" type="external">"4 Reasons Ted&#160;Cruz&#160;is Even More Dangerous than Donald Trump."</a>&#160; <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/139677457615" type="external">robertreich.org</a>]</p> | Robert Reich: 4 Reasons Ted Cruz is Even More Dangerous than Donald Trump... in 2 minutes. | true | http://occupy.com/article/robert-reich-4-reasons-ted-cruz-even-more-dangerous-donald-trump-2-minutes | 4 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>When the Albuquerque woman received a postcard earlier this year notifying her that she had been selected to receive a $100 gift rebate certificate from Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers, she didn't hesitate to go right to the source.</p>
<p>Rather than calling the toll-free number on the card as instructed, she contacted a local Wal-Mart to confirm that - sure enough - the unsolicited postcard was nothing more than a scam.</p>
<p>"No, we don't do that," she says she was told.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Witemeyer said her common-sense response to the postcard probably stems from dealing with countless fraudulent offers over the years, particularly since the advent of email.</p>
<p>She likened this experience to "constantly" being pestered with offers for Viagra or other men-only products.</p>
<p>"They make me laugh," she told the Journal. "It just shows you who is blanketing people - They're just sort of sending this out to everybody."</p>
<p>Witemeyer received two postcards in this scheme - the original and a reminder a few months later. The first, which was addressed to her by name, read as follows:</p>
<p>We are trying to reach you about your REWARD opportunity! You have been selected to recieve (sic) $100.00 in gift rebate certificates good at Wal-Mart, Target, and more. Hurry, call today to receive complete details on our risk-free offer and how to get yours!</p>
<p>That message was followed by a toll-free number to call and her eight-digit claim number.</p>
<p>The second postcard informed her that they were trying to contact her about her "UNCLAIMED Reward!" It contained both a different toll-free number and claim number.</p>
<p>Based on numerous reports from around the country, had she called one of those numbers, she would have been instructed to pay a $7.95 shipping and handling charge or a $9.97 processing fee - after being asked to divulge her credit-card number, of course.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Both Wal-Mart and Target have disavowed any connection to this ploy.</p>
<p>"Target is not affiliated with this program," Evan Lapiska, a senior public relations specialist for Target, responded to a Journal inquiry by email. "We always encourage guests to contact our Guest Relations team to confirm or ask questions on promotions online at <a href="http://target.com/contactus" type="external">target.com/contactus</a> or by phone at 1-800-440-0680."</p>
<p>Lapiska said additional information on how to deal with scammers is available in the company's online magazine, A Bullseye View ( <a href="http://abullseyeview.com" type="external">abullseyeview.com</a>).</p>
<p>Wal-Mart did not respond to a Journal request to speak with someone about the postcards, but the company's website ( <a href="http://walmart.com" type="external">walmart.com</a>) contains information on a handful of scams. Just scroll down to the bottom of its home page and look under the customer service heading for "Privacy &amp; Security."</p>
<p>Still, it's understandable how these type of offers can be tempting for consumers. After all, 100 bucks is 100 bucks.</p>
<p>Even Witemeyer concedes the point.</p>
<p>"Yes, I think so because they are using names of shops you know - When someone offers you $100 and it looks like a shop you would be going to, it's tempting," she said.</p>
<p>When asked what advice she would give others, Witemeyer suggested calling the company directly - at the correct number - or the local Better Business Bureau.</p>
<p>"I'm going on 80, so I'm not a spring chicken, but I think there are a lot of older people who may not be as aware as I am," she said. "So a postcard might be enough to entice them with these places."</p>
<p>Nick Pappas is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal and writes a blog called "Scammed, Etc." Contact him at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 505-823-3847 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-800-678-1508.</p>
<p /> | Phony rebate cards promise much, deliver zero | false | https://abqjournal.com/376092/phony-rebate-cards-promise-much-deliver-zero.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The losses were confined mostly to seedlings planted in the spring, said Jim Horst, executive director of the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association. Unlike mature trees, those planted this year do not have established root systems, experts said.</p>
<p>Horst, who farms in Bennington, Vermont, says he plants 6,000-7,000 trees a year and normally loses 1 or 2 percent of them, but lost 10 to 15 percent this year due to dry conditions.</p>
<p>“That’s not catastrophic — it’s not what I want to have happen — but it’s not catastrophic,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Farmers in some parts of Connecticut lost more than half of their newly planted trees, while others were unaffected, said Kathy Kogut, executive director of the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association.</p>
<p>But customers won’t see any difference come December in the supply of fully grown trees, which have weathered the drought, she said.</p>
<p>“A mature tree isn’t really affected that much,” she said. “If a tree goes through one really hot, dry summer, it still is in great shape for this harvest season. It might leach out a little color in the next season, but with a cold winter and a lot of snow, they’ll come right back.”</p>
<p>Jamie Jones, a sixth-generation farmer in Shelton, Connecticut, did some hand-watering this year on his more than 400-acre farm to save some of the young transplants.</p>
<p>“That is something we only have to do, I’d say once every five or 10 years, and you hope you really never have to do,” he said. “But it’s an inevitability at times.”</p>
<p>Experts said some extra-large trees also may have some drought-related problems because like people, the oldest and youngest trees are most vulnerable to heat.</p>
<p>The dry weather can bring with it other problems, such as funguses and grubs and insects looking for water by burrowing into their roots, Kogut said.</p>
<p>“They are much more likely to die of that than a lack of water,” she said.</p>
<p>Officials in New Haven said they harvested a 65-foot tree from a municipal golf course for the city green after their first choice, a donated tree, was found to be too stressed from drought.</p>
<p>Diane Holmes-Brandt said she’ll have to replace about half of the 12- to 18-inch transplants on her more than 30-acre farm in York County, Maine, but isn’t “freaking out about it.”</p>
<p>“When you’re a farmer, you go the way the weather goes,” she said. “You take your knocks when you have to, whether it’s ice storms, blizzards or droughts or too much rain.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland Maine and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed to this report.</p> | Christmas tree growers: Drought not seriously hurting crop | false | https://abqjournal.com/880858/christmas-tree-growers-drought-not-seriously-hurting-crop.html | 2016-11-02 | 2 |
<p>Protesters outside the White House watch President Obama announce his immigration executive actions in November 2014.Alex Brandon/AP</p>
<p />
<p>These days, President Obama can’t win on immigration.</p>
<p>The Republican presidential candidates have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/six-key-questions-about-immigration-and-how-top-gop-candidates-answer/2015/11/15/9a26ac86-8a18-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html" type="external">slamming his policies</a> from the right for months. But the recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2016/01/04/u-s-authorities-begin-raids-taking-121-illegal-immigrants-into-custody-over-the-weekend/" type="external">deportation raids</a> on Central American mothers and children have opened up Obama to <a href="http://fusion.net/story/33053/dont-call-me-deporter-in-chief-obama-defends-his-immigration-legacy/" type="external">renewed criticisms</a> from the left too: In last night’s <a href="" type="internal">Iowa Brown &amp; Black Forum</a>, Univision’s Jorge Ramos even <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jorgeramosnews/videos/494131914106233/" type="external">asked</a> presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, “Will you become the next deporter-in-chief?” (Clinton said no and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-deportation-raids_5694667be4b05b3245da3b3f?utm_hp_ref=politics&amp;ir=Politics&amp;section=politics" type="external">told</a> Ramos she didn’t think the raids were “an appropriate tool to enforce the immigration laws.”) And while the raids were meant to discourage the <a href="" type="internal">continuing surge</a> of people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the news from the border isn’t good: According to <a href="http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children/fy-2016" type="external">new statistics</a> released Tuesday by US Border and Customs Protection, the number of Central American kids and families apprehended there keeps rising sharply.</p>
<p>So what will Obama say about immigration in his final State of the Union address Tuesday night? He’s mentioned it in all but his first SOTU, though we seem light-years away from his exhortations to Congress to “get it done”—”it” being the comprehensive immigration reform that has long eluded him. Here’s what he’s said and focused on, year by year:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=87433" type="external">2010</a>: Secure borders, enforcement</p>
<p>“And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system, to secure our borders and enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation. In the end, it’s our ideals, our values, that built America, values that allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of the globe, values that drive our citizens still.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=88928" type="external">2011</a>: DREAM Act, secure borders, enforcement, comprehensive immigration reform</p>
<p>“One last point about education: Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.</p>
<p>“Now, I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration. And I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws, and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows. I know that debate will be difficult. I know it will take time. But tonight, let’s agree to make that effort. And let’s stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this nation.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=99000" type="external">2012</a>: DREAM Act, border security, comprehensive reform</p>
<p>“Let’s also remember that hundreds of thousands of talented, hard-working students in this country face another challenge: the fact that they aren’t yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation. Others came more recently, to study business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else. That doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>“I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration. That’s why my administration has put more boots on the border than ever before. That’s why there are fewer illegal crossings than when I took office. The opponents of action are out of excuses. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now.</p>
<p>“But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let’s at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, defend this country. Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=102826" type="external">2013</a>: Comprehensive reform, border security, pathway to citizenship, highly skilled workers</p>
<p>“Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants. And right now leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, faith communities, they all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Now is the time to do it. Now is the time to get it done. [Applause.] Now is the time to get it done.</p>
<p>“Real reform means stronger border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made: putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.</p>
<p>“Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship, a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.</p>
<p>“And real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods and attract the highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy.</p>
<p>“In other words, we know what needs to be done. And as we speak, bipartisan groups in both chambers are working diligently to draft a bill, and I applaud their efforts. So let’s get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away. And America will be better for it. Let’s get it done. [Applause.] Let’s get it done.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=104596" type="external">2014</a>: Comprehensive reform</p>
<p>“Finally, if we’re serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted, and I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same. Independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades. And for good reason: When people come here to fulfill their dreams—to study, invent, contribute to our culture—they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate and create jobs for everybody. So let’s get immigration reform done this year. [Applause.] Let’s get it done. It’s time.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=108031" type="external">2015</a>: DREAM Act, deportations</p>
<p>“We can’t put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street or refighting past battles on immigration when we’ve got to fix a broken system…”</p>
<p>“Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student and agree that no one benefits when a hard-working mom is snatched from her child and that it’s possible to shape a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. I’ve talked to Republicans and Democrats about that. That’s something that we can share.”</p>
<p /> | Why Obama Can’t Win on Immigration | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/obama-immigration-state-of-the-union/ | 2016-01-12 | 4 |
<p>Often overlooked, mid-cap stocks and exchange-traded funds offer investors exciting long-term growth prospects. More important than excitement are historical data that confirm mid caps have lengthy track records of topping large and small stocks while being less volatile than small caps.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Some investors may perceive mid caps as being richly valued, as is often the case with small caps, indicating that they have to pay up for growth. There are ways for investors to manage mid-cap valuations and they can do so with in passive fashion with the WisdomTree MidCap Earnings Fund (ETF) (NYSE:EZM).</p>
<p>EZM follows the fundamentally-weighted WisdomTree MidCap Earnings Index. That index has an emphasis on core earnings, which is a standardized calculation of earnings developed by Standard &amp; Poor's designed to include expenses, incomes and activities that reflect the actual profitability of an enterprises ongoing operations, <a href="https://www.wisdomtree.com/index/wtmei" type="external">according to WisdomTree Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, there is a profitability requirement stocks must meet to join EZM's lineup, <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/17/02/8996186/a-better-etf-idea-for-mid-caps" type="external">a methodology that helps Opens a New Window.</a> the ETF avoid overvalued and unprofitable mid caps.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>WisdomTree measures earnings by S&amp;P Core earnings instead of GAAP earnings, because they believe these more accurately represent a stock's operational earnings. S&amp;P Core earnings remove gains or losses from noncore business activities such as hedging, asset sales, and litigation, said <a href="http://news.morningstar.com/cover/videocenter.aspx?id=800078" type="external">Morningstar Opens a New Window.</a> in a recent note.</p>
<p>EZM's top three sector weights industrials, consumer discretionary and financial services combine for over 56 percent of the ETF's weight. By comparison, those sectors combine for about 41 percent of the S&amp;P MidCap 400 Index, one of the most widely followed mid-cap benchmarks. That index's largest sector weight is 18.2 percent to technology, which is more than 600 basis points above EZM's weight to that sector.</p>
<p>While there are time frames in which EZM trails the S&amp;P MidCap 400, long-term returns favor the WisdomTree ETF. For example, EZM is up about 415 percent since the start of the current bull market compared to a gain of 336 percent for the S&amp;P MidCap 400. On a risk-adjusted basis, EZM wins as well as the ETF has been only a tad more volatile than the mid-cap benchmark during this bull market.</p>
<p>Through February 2017, it bested the mid-cap blend category average and S&amp;P MidCap 400 index by 2.9 and 0.5 percentage points annually over the trailing 10 years, said Morningstar. Compared to the index, most of this fund's outperformance came from underweighting financial stocks during the financial crisis and adding exposure back post-crisis.</p>
<p>Morningstar has a bronze rating on EZM.</p>
<p>Related Links:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/17/03/9136682/tracking-moves-in-some-smart-beta-etfs" type="external">Tracking Moves In Some Smart Beta ETFs Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/17/02/8996186/a-better-etf-idea-for-mid-caps" type="external">A Better ETF Idea For Mid-Caps</a></p>
<p>2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p> | Finding Value With Mid Caps | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/31/finding-value-with-mid-caps.html | 2017-03-31 | 0 |
<p>CAIRO, Egypt — It was graduation night. Sarah el-Sirgany had just wrapped up her studies at the prestigious American University in Cairo, and she was ready to celebrate with friends.</p>
<p>Sirgany, from a well-to-do Egyptian family, made her way to the center of town, a veil — or hijab — wrapped loosely, yet carefully, around her head.</p>
<p>She walked the gangplank of one of the Nile’s posh boats and asked the manager of the restaurant inside to lead her to her friends’ table.</p>
<p>“The bouncer at the door told me I can’t get in,” she said. “Honestly, it was too late into the night to get into an argument. But it was infuriating. I just told my friends to come out to meet me.”</p>
<p>The reason she was denied entry? Her veil. Sirgany had dared step into the battle between Egypt’s secular past and increasingly religious present. She had sought entry to a restaurant filled with wine drinking upper-class Egyptians, many of whom still eschew the veil.</p>
<p>This young Egyptian herself exists somewhere in the middle of a growing cultural divide.&#160;She has the money to eat at the high-end restaurants and many of her friends don’t don the veil.</p>
<p>Increasingly, though, women like Sirgany are finding themselves without a place as the Egyptian upper class fights to keep conservative strains of Islam from gaining access to its social circles.</p>
<p>“I think certain places want to paint a certain image about their clientele,” she said, “and having veiled women inside is seen as a potential contradiction to this image.”</p>
<p>The trend toward veiling in Egypt began 20 or 30 years ago among Egypt’s lowest economic rungs. The reasons for this, say scholars, was varied.</p>
<p>After the fall of Arab nationalism, which reached its peak in the 1950s and '60s, many here saw the region’s culture as a rudderless ship, without clear identity or relation to the West. So many turned to Islam, rallying around it as a means of creating a unique regional character.</p>
<p>It was also around this time that many women abandoned their traditional roles as homemakers and entered the work force. Some women took on the veil to maintain a measure of the privacy afforded to them in their past lives as stay-at-home wives.</p>
<p>And wearing a veil also took care of a practical problem for low-income Egyptian women.</p>
<p>“Some women can’t afford 2 million dresses,” said Isis Nusair, a professor of women’s studies at Denison University in Ohio, “and wearing the hijab is cheap.”</p>
<p>Over the years, the conservative form of Islam that compelled women to wear a veil crept slowly through the socioeconomic ranks. Estimates are that upwards of 90 percent of Muslim women in Egypt today wear the veil.</p>
<p>And now Egypt’s elite upper class, the well-traveled sorts who tend to sneer at what they view as a backwards practice, is fighting to keep secularism alive in its ranks.</p>
<p>While some high-end restaurateurs turn veiled women away at the door, they are hardly the only warriors in this cultural skirmish.</p>
<p>Many of the beaches that line Egypt’s north coast follow similar practices, forbidding veiled women from enjoying their sands. Some establishments encourage veiled women to visit nearby women-only beaches, where they can lounge and swim under tents that extend far into the Mediterranean. Even so, not all veils are created equal. Some establishments will let veiled women enter as long as their veil is considered trendy. A loose scarf with fashionable clothes might get a pass, while a niqab — the kind of dress that exposes nothing but the eyes — might not be welcome.</p>
<p>The Egyptian government has had mixed reactions to the controversy. Strictly speaking, it embraces Sharia law as supreme. As such, it bans all Egyptians from drinking on religious holidays and forbids, absolutely, Egyptians from entering casinos.</p>
<p>But these nods to Egypt’s Islamic legacy are not without critics, even from within the highest ranks of government.</p>
<p>In 2006, long-serving Culture Minister Farouk Hosni openly complained about movement toward the veil.</p>
<p>“There was an age when our mothers went to university and worked without the veil. It is in that spirit that we grew up. So why this regression?” he said in the controversial interview.</p>
<p>Egypt’s conservative factions and a number of newspapers lambasted him for months following the comments, keeping alive Egypt’s scandal of the year.</p>
<p>In this cultural brawl, though, it’s clear that Islam has the momentum since members of the upper class are increasingly taking on the veil.</p>
<p>But a vocal minority from the upper class is committed to continuing the fight and keeping people like Sirgany out of the bars, restaurants and beaches they consider to be their final bastions of secularism.</p>
<p>"Sorry, but that’s up to me to decide, not anyone else," said El Sirgany, discussing where she chooses to spend her evenings. "If I want to go to a pub with friends or on my own, if I want to drink alcohol while wearing the veil — I don’t drink by the way — it’s only up to me.</p>
<p>"People who find a problem with that, really need to get over themselves. If they can’t reconcile their own stereotypes with new realities, then it’s their problem, not mine."</p>
<p>(Photo:&#160;Sarah el-Sirgany)</p>
<p /> | Some Muslims find Egypt a colder place | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-09-14/some-muslims-find-egypt-colder-place | 2009-09-14 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Yep, somebody tried to get away with that one, just like the new car, the flat-screen TV, the doggie day spa, vacations, rent, loans and even toilet paper.</p>
<p>All of those ended up on company expense reports, according to a survey of chief financial officers done by Robert Half Management Resources. They all presumably were denied.</p>
<p>“I think they’re definitely ones that CFOs thought were ridiculous in one way or another,” said Aubrey Hart, division director for Robert Half Management Resources in Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Based on the survey, one employee billed a company for a welder, while another nickeled and dimed his employer by submitting for reimbursement a 10-cent parking meter charge.</p>
<p>The examples might produce a chuckle or some head scratching, but they also appear to be representative of a not-so-funny trend in the industry — a rise in inappropriate expense account requests.</p>
<p>According to the Robert Half survey of more than 2,200 chief financial officers, 23 percent reported that inappropriate requests had increased significantly or somewhat. Only 11 percent reported a drop.</p>
<p>“Inappropriate expense reports are costly — both to the company’s bottom line and to the careers of people who submit them,” said Tim Hird, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources.</p>
<p>Hart said the increase in questionable reimbursement requests may not be so much the result of trying to pull one over on the boss as the fact that there are gray areas or even changes in company policies. Employers, she said, need to make sure their policies on reimbursement are clear.</p>
<p>They also should make the policy easily accessible to employees.</p>
<p>“Oftentimes, it’s buried in a company manual,” she said.</p>
<p>If you’re wondering whether that glass of wine at dinner or the breakfast sandwich at the airport on your way out of town is eligible for reimbursement, a good rule of thumb is common sense, Hart said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Or just talk to your boss. “It’s always beneficial to run it past a manager first,” she said. “Give your manager a heads-up to avoid an awkward situation or an awkward conversation.”</p>
<p>Hart said some definite taboos are things like parking tickets, speeding tickets and work clothing, which she pointed out typically is not eligible for expense account reimbursement.</p>
<p>One area that’s not so clear-cut is cell phone data plans, particularly if you use your device for business and personal purposes. Employees should try to separate business use from personal use as much as possible and seek reimbursement only for that relating to work.</p>
<p>Alcohol can be a gray area. “I’ve seen companies where employees are able to expense a certain amount of alcohol. I’ve seen others where alcohol has to be on a totally separate bill,” Hart said.</p>
<p>If all else fails, ask your grandma.</p>
<p>“If you’d be embarrassed to talk to a parent or grandparent about something, don’t try to expense it,” the company advised in a statement.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2016 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</p>
<p>Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com" type="external">www.post-gazette.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>———-</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A doggie day spa fee is probably not a work expense | false | https://abqjournal.com/864672/a-doggie-day-spa-fee-is-probably-not-a-work-expense.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>BOSTON (MA)Boston GlobeBy Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 4/16/2003</p>
<p>Speaking to hundreds of priests gathered for the annual blessing of holy oils, Bishop Richard G. Lennon yesterday called on priests to join him in forging a ''greater unity'' in this time of unprecedented divisions within the church and among its clergy.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Lennon's plea for unity is, in effect, a call for a return to the traditional relationship between Catholic priests and their bishops, a relationship governed by obedience and theological alignment. It comes just four months after dozens of Boston priests joined in the call for Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign, and there remains great unhappiness among some priests about the way that bishops have handled the clergy sexual abuse crisis.</p>
<p>Over the last five weeks, Lennon has met behind closed doors with large groups of priests throughout Eastern Massachusetts, detailing his efforts to settle more than 500 legal claims against the archdiocese and to cut archdiocesan spending to make up for a reduction in contributions to the church.</p> | Lennon appeals to archdiocese priests for greater unity | false | https://poynter.org/news/lennon-appeals-archdiocese-priests-greater-unity | 2003-04-16 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Police take a man into custody after a SWAT standoff that closed Central from 59th to Yucca Tuesday morning. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two people are in custody after a standoff with the Albuquerque Police Department SWAT team Tuesday morning, according to a police spokesman.</p>
<p>Central Avenue was shut down in both directions between 59th Street and Yucca Drive during the standoff.</p>
<p>The incident began as a domestic dispute between a male and a female, officer Fred Duran said.</p>
<p>The situation is “dangerous,” Duran said.</p>
<p>— This is a developing story. Additional information will be added as it becomes available.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Suspects in custody, Central reopened after SWAT standoff | false | https://abqjournal.com/535705/swat-situation-police-block-central-on-west-side.html | 2015-02-03 | 2 |
<p>New England is becoming a gay marriage zone. Five of the six states already have protections for gay couples, and state lawmakers and groups like Gay &amp; Lesbian Advocates &amp; Defenders are pushing for full marriage rights in all six by 2012. Beyond human rights, that could mean big bucks for the region.</p>
<p>Reuters:</p>
<p>M.V. Lee Badgett, an economist at the University of Massachusetts? Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, led a study released in July that said over the next three years about 32,200 same-sex couples would travel from other states to marry in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>That would translate into 330 jobs and a $111 million boost to the state's economy, the study projects.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50D08A20090114" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Gay Marriage Taking New England by Storm | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/gay-marriage-taking-new-england-by-storm/ | 2009-01-14 | 4 |
<p>While at news conference with Houston's mayor touting tax relief provisions for victims of Hurricane Harvey, US Sen. Ted Cruz addressed the controversy regarding President Trump's comments on immigrants. (Jan. 12)</p>
<p>While at news conference with Houston's mayor touting tax relief provisions for victims of Hurricane Harvey, US Sen. Ted Cruz addressed the controversy regarding President Trump's comments on immigrants. (Jan. 12)</p> | Sen. Ted Cruz Reacts To Trump: Avoid Nastiness | false | https://apnews.com/amp/4e9ee65b9c8d47389589bfdfb357034b | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The San Diego-based musicians is a master when it comes to scheduling.</p>
<p>In fact, it’s the only way he can go about his day.</p>
<p>“I make every spare minute count,” he says during a recent phone interview. “Basically, I’m wall to wall smashed in what I’m doing,” he says. “Right now, I’m putting together my entire setup, and I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. I have three of my kids at the practice space with me, because I didn’t have anywhere to take them. It’s a balance.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Crow is half of the San Diego-based indie rock band Pinback, which formed in 1998 and is celebrating its 20th year in the music industry.</p>
<p>The band essentially is Crow and Armistead Burwell Smith IV, but the duo is known to travel with additional performers.</p>
<p>Crow says the band tours with Chris Prescott on drums.</p>
<p>Crow and Smith met while playing in their previous bands, Three Mile Pilot and Heavy Vegetable. The bands were often booked together, and the pair became roommates in the ’90s.</p>
<p>“During that time, it never occurred to us to be in a band together,” he explains. “That idea didn’t happen until the late ’90s. After that, we’ve been a pretty dependable duo.”</p>
<p>It’s been nearly six years since Pinback’s last album, “Information Retrieved” and Crow says there’s new material being worked on, but no deadline.</p>
<p>“It’s something that we’re working on,” he says. “But we’re not working on it too much. We both have a lot of projects in our future.”</p>
<p>In addition to music, Crow is balancing side projects and being a dad to five children – two are newborn twins.</p>
<p>“I’m a househusband and my wife works full time,” he says. “I’m also working on the biggest project of my life, and once that gets done, I’m sure I’ll have more time. I get on the road because I have to. It’s my contribution to the family.”</p>
<p>With no new music in the foreseeable future, Crow says, the band is having fun performing its catalog.</p>
<p>“It’s really fun for me because I love all of our music,” he says. “I haven’t really been burned out from performing.”</p>
<p />
<p>HOW MUCH: $15, plus fees at <a href="http://holdmyticket.com" type="external">holdmyticket.com</a></p>
<p /> | Looking back: Pinback celebrates 20 years | false | https://abqjournal.com/1121085/pinback-performs-from-its-catalog-as-it-celebrates-20-years.html | 2 |
|
<p>A website featuring a 2,444-word white supremacist screed shows dozens of photos of the gunman arrested in the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre.</p>
<p>The site shows a stone-faced Dylann Roof — the man who confessed to shooting nine people dead at a Bible study group, according to sources — holding weapons, visiting a cemetery for Confederate soldiers, and burning and spitting on an American flag.</p>
<p>Roof appears to have bought the site domain in February based on a reverse domain look-up service that found it was registered under the name Dylann Roof, using Roof's mother's home address. NBC News could not confirm the site's authenticity or whether Roof was its creator.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="" type="internal">Charleston Church Shooting Renews Confederate Flag Debate</a></p>
<p>Federal law enforcement sources said the FBI and local Charleston authorities have been investigating and analyzing the site, and have known about it for several days.</p>
<p>While the FBI is not saying with "100 percent" certainty it belongs to Roof, they are operating under the assumption that he is responsible for all of the writings, photos and other material, sources said.</p>
<p>There are also photos on it of historic sites, such as a Confederate museum, and one picture of a beach's coastline with "1488" carved in the sand, a white supremacy encryption that stands for: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." It's unclear who took many of the photos.</p>
<p>In a drawn-out rant, the site's writer outlines becoming "racially aware," explaining that he wasn't raised in a racist environment, but was "awakened" by the case of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot to death in Florida.</p>
<p>The writer goes on to explain his views on race, calling black people "stupid and violent," Jewish people an "enigma," Hispanic people a "huge problem," and East Asian people "by nature very racist."</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="" type="internal">Dylann Roof Hinted of Attack, Friend Says</a></p>
<p>The writer then describes a disdain for the American flag, which he says represents "people pretending like they have something to be proud [of] while White people are being murdered daily in the streets." The writer concludes by saying that he has no choice but to fight, and says he has chosen Charleston because of its historical importance and because it "at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country."</p>
<p>Roof, 21, was arrested in the fatal shootings of the nine victims at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on Wednesday night. Police say they believe the attack was a hate crime.</p> | Racist Website Appears to Belong to Charleston Church Shooter Dylann Roof | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/racist-website-appears-belong-charleston-church-shooter-dylann-roof-n379021 | 2015-06-20 | 3 |
<p>Returning from an overseas trip that was both celebrated and controversial, President <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Trump</a> is plowing “full steam ahead” with his domestic agenda, the White House said Tuesday, brushing aside jibes by foreign leaders and new questions about top aides’ links to <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a>.</p>
<p>White House press secretary <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Sean Spicer</a> looked for momentum from the president’s history-making journey across the Middle East and Europe, hoping to break free of the unyielding news coverage of alleged collusion with <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> and other criticisms that have distracted from <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s accomplishments.</p>
<p>“We’re back at home now, and the president and his Cabinet are moving full steam ahead on the president’s agenda,” <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said at the daily White House press briefing. “We’ve got a pretty bold agenda.”</p>
<p>Little had changed in Washington during <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s nine-day trip, however, and <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> again clashed with reporters and accused them of peddling “fake news.”</p>
<p>He abruptly ended the briefing after arguing with reporters about what qualified as “fake news.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s plans to replace Obamacare, overhaul the tax code and launch a massive infrastructure program remained bogged down in Congress.</p>
<p>The frustration inside the White House was evident.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> repeatedly took to Twitter to vent about news reports focusing on <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> and on comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that were presented as an indictment of the president’s diplomatic skills.</p>
<p>“We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO &amp; military. Very bad for U.S. This will change,” the president tweeted.</p>
<p>He also tweeted about the stalled agenda, which has denied him a major legislative victory after five months in office.</p>
<p>“The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy. Dems would do it, no doubt!” tweeted <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>.</p>
<p>The suggestion that the Senate do away with the filibuster rule, a proposal that would dramatically alter the nature of the chamber, had virtually no support from GOP senators. What’s more, the two bills <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> named are, under current rules for certain budget bills, already exempt from filibuster.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> took a different tack.</p>
<p>He insisted the president’s agenda was on track and gaining steam, although he acknowledged some frustrations with the pace of Congress.</p>
<p>“He wants to see action done,” said <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a>. “This president was elected to get things done and he wants to see things moved through the House and the Senate, especially when you’ve got a majority of support and [he wants] people to stop playing games.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> dismissed questions about a Washington Post report that <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner attempted to set up backchannel communications with Moscow during the transition. The report, based on anonymous sources, furthered speculation that the FBI’s <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> probe had identified Mr. Kushner as a person of interest.</p>
<p>National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly have defended the practice of using backchannel communications, but <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> refused to say if <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> approved of it.</p>
<p>“What your question assumes is a lot of facts that are not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources that are so far being leaked out,” he told reporters. “You’re asking if he approves of an action that is not a confirmed action.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> also had to contend with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying her country could no longer depend on the U.S. for security, a comment widely interpreted in the U.S. news media as evidence the president had strained relations with European allies.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said the comment was a validation of <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a>’s call for NATO members to pay their fair share for security.</p>
<p>“That’s great. That’s what the president called for. He called for additional burden sharing,” he said.</p>
<p>He was ready for the question and read back the quote from Ms. Merkel:</p>
<p>“The times when we could fully count on others are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days. We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands, of course in friendship with the United States, in friendship with Great Britain, with other neighbors wherever possible, also with <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said it was good for everybody in countries like Germany to meet their NATO obligations.</p>
<p>“That is a good thing for them, that is a good thing for NATO, that is a good thing for America,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> raised eyebrows last week at a NATO summit in Brussels when he stood before European leaders and told them that their countries had to start paying their agreed share for military security.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> has pushed that issue since the campaign and has already seen some NATO members increase their payments, which is supposed to be 2 percent of a country’s gross domestic product. Currently, only five of NATO’s 28 members pay the agreed amount for defense.</p>
<p>In the clash over “fake news,” <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said the president was “rightly concerned” about disinformation spread in the news media.</p>
<p>Asked to name a ‘fake news’ story, <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> noted a tweet by a reporter about <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> disrespecting the Italian prime minister during the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> was accused of being disrespectful because he wasn’t wearing headphones to hear a translation of Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s remarks. <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> was, however, wearing an earpiece.</p>
<p>The tweet by a BBC reporter was shared by a Politico reporter who is moving to the New York Times.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said that was the type of false story that was pushed instead of focusing on the successes on the trip, including visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vatican City in Rome to unite three major religions in the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.</p>
<p>Reporters objected.</p>
<p>“It’s true. You did it,” <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said.</p>
<p>Another reporter responded: “Reporters make mistakes.”</p>
<p>“No,” said <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a>, “that’s just fake. That is fake.”</p>
<p>A New York Times reporter defended his colleagues by saying the mistake was only in a tweet and reports about the president’s trip were all over the front page.</p>
<p>“The problem is the president gets frustrated when he sees fake stories get published, things that are not based in fact,” <a href="/topics/sean-spicer/" type="external">Mr. Spicer</a> said.</p>
<p>He could have pointed to major news stories that have been discredited, such as front-page reports that <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> fired FBI Director James B. Comey after he requested more money and resources for the <a href="/topics/russia/" type="external">Russia</a> investigation.</p>
<p>The story was presented as evidence that <a href="/topics/donald-trump/" type="external">Mr. Trump</a> was attempting to obstruct the investigation.</p>
<p>Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told a House panel earlier this month that he was unaware of such a request.</p>
<p>“Moreover, I consulted my staff and Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and none of them recalls such a request,” he said.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/may/30/white-house-says-full-steam-ahead-trump-agenda/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | White House says ‘full steam ahead’ on Trump agenda | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/30/white-house-says-full-steam-ahead-trump-agenda/ | 2017-05-30 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The Downs will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Dec. 19 to Dec. 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Dec. 24, from noon to 1 a.m. Dec. 25, from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Dec. 26, from 10 a.m.-1 a.m. Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. Dec. 29 to Dec. 31, and from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Jan. 1.</p>
<p>This month, roll in the dough with your share of $4,000 every weekend this month. The “$20,000 Weekend Cash” promotion happens from 1 to 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Earn 75 base points while playing your preferred games at The Downs to qualify.</p>
<p>Make time for the “$250,000 Quarter Mill &amp; Chill” promotion for a chance to win up to $900 cash. Drawings will be held at noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m., 8 p.m., and 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Three winners will be selected during each drawing. There will be 800 winners chosen throughout the promotion run. To qualify, earn 75 base points in the two hours before each drawing.</p>
<p>Amp up on the points during “Point Multipliers” on Wednesdays. Triple Crown Club members earn five times the points each Wednesday in December. The Downs also will feature bonus days on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25, when members can also earn five times the points. Those who celebrate a birthday in December can earn three times the points on their birthday and three times the points on Tuesdays in December.</p>
<p>Ring in 2018 at The Downs during the “$5,000 New Year’s Eve Giveaway” from 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Dec. 31. Drawings will be held every half-hour. Multiple winners will be selected during each drawing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Crown Room inside The Downs also is helping make your New Year’s Eve memorable with a special menu featuring an amuse-bouche of cured salmon, crostini, caviar, and pea shoot with a champagne reduction. The menu also includes a first course of cucumber salad featuring greens, candied walnuts, feta cheese, shredded carrots, diced red onions, and a champagne vinaigrette. The main course of center-cut New York steak will be complemented by asparagus, Brussels sprouts, a burned-onion puree, fondant potatoes and a red chile demi. A New York cheesecake featuring champagne caviar and rose crystals completes the menu.</p>
<p>After dinner, head over to the First Turn Lounge for a New Year’s Eve celebration featuring music by Blu Sol as well as a midnight countdown with a free champagne toast. There is no cover for the event. The First Turn Lounge always keeps the party going every Friday and Saturday night. Enjoy entertainment by Black Pearl tonight and Saturday, Dec. 16, Fat City on Dec. 22 and 23, and Gonzalo on Dec. 29 and 30. During the week, get your vocals ready for karaoke every Tuesday and Wednesday. Also take advantage of some cool drink specials during ladies’ night every Thursday. There is no cover charge for these events.</p>
<p>For more information on The Downs, call 767-7171 or visit <a href="http://abqdowns.com" type="external">abqdowns.com</a>.</p>
<p /> | Holiday shift: The Downs changes hours, offers reasons to celebrate season | false | https://abqjournal.com/1106317/the-downs-changes-hours-offers-reasons-to-celebrate-season.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>In a shocking announcement referring to an independent review, the Church of England assisted with a cover-up of child sex abuse.</p>
<p>"Abuse of Faith", an independent report, found -that several high profile figures within the church "displayed little care" for the victims of disgraced former bishop Peter Ball, who was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 after admitting to the molestation of countless teenage boys and young men in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.</p>
<p />
<p>Dame Moira Gibb, the author of the report, said the Church's "failure to safeguard so many boys and young men still casts a long shadow".</p>
<p>The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welty, has admitted publicly now that the Church of England directly "concealed" evidence of the sexual assault of these poor innocent children. While the victim's lives are forever ruined, the reputation of the Church is now in peril as well.</p>
<p />
<p>"Ball's priority was to protect and promote himself and he maligned the abused," the report said. "The Church colluded with that rather than seeking to help those he had harmed, or assuring itself of the safety of others." Such claims are astonishing since the Church has long denied knowledge of the abuse.</p>
<p />
<p>In as early as 1993, prosecutors were working on charging Ball with similar offenses, however, a the time the then-Bishop of Gloucester avoided a trial by accepting a caution for the abuse of one young man and resigned his post.</p>
<p />
<p>When Ball was finally brought to justice and convicted last year, former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord George Carey denied any knowledge of a cover-up in 1990. He did, however, express regret for failing to deal properly with Ball's victims.</p>
<p />
<p>Since today's public report was released, Mr. Williams said in a statement, "It is clear I did not give adequate priority to sorting out the concerns and allegations surrounding Peter Ball at the earliest opportunity."</p>
<p />
<p>He went on to say "I recognize such a delay is likely to have increased the pressure and distress experienced by the survivors of his abuse and I am sincerely sorry for this."</p>
<p />
<p>In February Ball was released from prison after only having served 16 months. Many people including the victim's and their families were outraged at what they believe to be a gross miscarriage of justice.</p>
<p />
<p>A spokesperson for the NSPCC said, "It is utterly disgraceful to discover that collusion at the heart of the Church of England led to the abuse of so many young men and boys."</p>
<p>The NSPCC continued, "Abuse in our most revered institutions must be exposed and investigated, offenders brought to justice, and victims gave the confidence to come forward."</p>
<p />
<p>Source :</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/877843728932757504" type="external">twitter.com/AP/status/877843728932757504</a></p> | Pedophile Bishop Protected by the Church of England | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/4121-Pedophile-Bishop-Protected-by-the-Church-of-England | 2017-06-23 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>About 2 million people have a heart attack or stroke each year, resulting in about 800,000 deaths.&#160;Those who do survive have a lower quality of life.</p>
<p>All of this results in a tremendous cost in lost productivity and annual health care expenditures totaling $444 billion; these costs are increasing each year.</p>
<p>These facts are especially alarming since the primary risk factors for cardiovascular disease (smoking, high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, inactivity and obesity) are preventable and can be treated at a low cost.&#160;It does not take a doctor to tell someone that he needs to discontinue these things that are making him sick.</p>
<p>It is estimated that controlling these risk factors would reduce the risk of death from stroke or heart attack by more than half.&#160;In fact, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, written some 35 years ago, “97 percent of the heart attacks could be prevented by following a vegetarian diet.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Seventh-day Adventist Church has advocated this diet for more than 100 years, and those members who have followed this practice almost never have a heart attack or stroke. The Centers for Disease Control are advocating an elaborate program aimed at saving one million hearts, but if each person in America would assume the responsibility for his own health, this enormous problem could be readily solved.</p>
<p>Let’s each resolve to do our part.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Support million hearts initiative | false | https://abqjournal.com/185886/support-million-hearts-initiative.html | 2013-04-07 | 2 |
<p>This has to rank among the more embarrassing airport diplomacy blunders in post-9/11 America: U.S. immigration officials pulled Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh “King” Khan aside for questioning at the Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday, failing to recognize the “King of Bollywood,” thus causing an international stir of a decidedly undesirable sort. –KA</p>
<p>AP via philly.com:</p>
<p>In Bollywood, his appeal stretches far beyond India and deep into the Muslim world , from Indonesia to the Middle East.</p>
<p>His happy-go-lucky personality on and off camera, his reluctance to take sides in politically charged matters and his “can’t we all just get along?” approach to deep divisions between Muslims and Hindus have made him a defacto ambassador for a global generation striving to overcome ancient hatreds.</p>
<p />
<p>Khan initially said his treatment by U.S. authorities left him “angry and humiliated” but later downplayed those comments and described the airport experience as “a procedure that needs to be followed, but an unfortunate procedure.”</p>
<p>Khan told the Times of India on Monday that he didn’t want an apology from the U.S. authorities, he just wanted to go home.</p>
<p>Ironically, Khan was in the U.S. to promote his new film, largely shot in California, about an Indian Muslim with Asperger’s syndrome living in a post-911 America. His character’s anti-social ticks and odd behavior are mistaken by U.S. authorities as suspicious and he’s detained as a suspected terrorist.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20090817_ap_bollywoodstartreatmentraisesireinusabroad.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Interrogation of 'King Khan' Sparks Outrage | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/interrogation-of-king-khan-sparks-outrage/ | 2009-08-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Retailers are dangling perks like higher pay, extra discounts and more flexible schedules to lure temporary holiday workers in a tighter labor market.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>They're also more determined to lock in their workers earlier. Macy's and Target are holding their first nationwide recruitment fairs, and others like consumer electronics chain Hhgregg Inc. are making it easier to apply for temporary holiday jobs via mobile devices.</p>
<p>"It's a scramble for people, and we have to get creative," said Hari Pillai, CEO of Speed Commerce, which plans to hire about 450 workers at its warehouses and call centers this season for clients including Yankee Candle. That's a 50 percent increase over last year. Pillai noted that he increased pay by 20 percent to 25 percent in tight labor areas like Ohio.</p>
<p>Some companies are also widening their standards. Significantly more companies said they would be more willing to hire temporary workers with criminal backgrounds than two years ago, according to job listing site Snagajob.com.</p>
<p>"It's reflecting that people have changed their views on what's good enough," said CEO Peter Harrison.</p>
<p>Harrison also noted that many of his retail clients, which include companies like arts and crafts retailer The Michaels Cos. and Target Corp., want to have their holiday hiring done by the end of October. In the past, it was complete by early November.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Government figures show that 2.5 million more Americans have jobs as of August compared to a year earlier. The unemployment rate is 4.9 percent, lower than the 5.1 percent a year ago.</p>
<p>Hiring for the final three months of the year should be level with last year, when retailers added about 738,800 seasonal workers, said John Challenger, chief executive of workplace consultant Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas. That was down 1.4 percent from the year before.</p>
<p>But while the overall number of jobs for seasonal workers looks to be flat, the biggest growth area in recent years has been in transportation and warehouse jobs because of the increase in online shopping. Transportation and warehouse employment increased by a non-seasonally adjusted 200,500 workers in November and December last year. Ten years ago, the seasonal job gains for that sector measured just 42,400, according to Challenger's analysis.</p>
<p>Deloitte expects holiday sales, for the November-through-January period, to increase 3.6 percent to 4 percent, exceeding a trillion dollars. That would compare to 3.6 percent growth last year. And e-commerce business is forecast to rise 17 percent to 19 percent, possibly reaching $98 billion for the holiday season.</p>
<p>But finding the right workers for the season is critical. Having a bad customer service experience during holiday shopping is much worse than having one the rest of the year, says Kevon Hills, vice president of research at StellaService, a customer service analytics company.</p>
<p>"No matter what technology you use, or tools or product, at the heart of the customer service is the people — whether it's online or in the store," he said.</p>
<p>Hills noted that retailers have improved their response time in recent years. For example, last holiday season, it took 49 seconds from the first ring to when a customer service representative answers, compared to 71 seconds during the holiday 2013 season, he said.</p>
<p>One of the biggest incentives for workers, of course, is pay. Toys R Us, which is hiring 10,900 seasonal workers in five of its biggest markets, said it's raising the pay in certain areas. Also new this year: Better compensation for those who work Christmas Eve, according to Alyssa Peera, a spokeswoman at the toy retailer. Traditionally, workers were given increased pay on Thanksgiving. Temporary workers will also get additional discounts and be treated to special after-hour events.</p>
<p>But flexibility is a big draw, too, as stores aim to be more competitive with companies like ride-sharing provider Uber. Pillai says that a few years ago, people who wanted to work just 10 hours a week had a hard time getting holiday jobs. But now, he said, "We will find a role."</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Follow Anne D'Innocenzio http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio</p> | In a tight market, stores lure holiday workers with perks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/03/in-tight-market-stores-lure-holiday-workers-with-perks.html | 2016-10-03 | 0 |
<p>TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Political instability never figured into Chris Haughey’s calculations when the American entrepreneur decided to build a toy factory in Honduras.</p>
<p>It seemed like the ideal spot for foreign investment given the country's cheap labor, tax incentives — and political stability. Indeed, Honduras hadn’t experienced a coup since the 1970s.</p>
<p>Yet shortly after Haughey (pronounced HO-we) broke ground on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, the military ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Street protests led to curfews that caused construction delays at Haughey’s plant, which pushed back the start-up date for toy production.</p>
<p>“The impact for us has mostly been with delays,” said Haughey, 29, as he wandered past idle machinery. Workers and vendors “don’t show up because there’s a curfew for all or part of the day and so they’re not going to come out to the factory.”</p>
<p>Haughey and other business people in Honduras were already being squeezed by the world economic slowdown but the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/costa-rica/090629/Honduras-coup" type="external">June coup</a> made matters far worse.</p>
<p>Everything from coffee and banana exports to construction, tourism and foreign investment are plummeting. International aid has been squeezed by <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/090630/analysis-coup-without-friends" type="external">governments that have refused to recognize</a> the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti.</p>
<p>The economy of Honduras — which is already the third poorest country in Latin America — is expected to contract by as much as 4 percent this year, according to Raf Flores of Fosdeh, an economic think tank in Tegucigalpa.</p>
<p>“It’s a sad situation,” U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens said in an interview.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether the recent <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/091128/honduras-holds-new-election" type="external">presidential election</a> will do much to resolve the crisis.</p>
<p>Unlike the left-wing Zelaya, President-elect Porfirio Lobo has close ties to both the business community and the United States. But many Latin American nations have refused to recognize the election, which was organized by the Micheletti government.</p>
<p>Even if the Honduran Congress votes to restore Zelaya to the presidency for the brief period before his term ends on Jan. 28, the ousted leader says he won’t go along with the plan because it would only serve to legitimize the coup.</p>
<p>“The uncertainty slows down local and international investment while non-recognition of the government stops loans and donations,” Flores said.</p>
<p>Before the coup, he added, “the poverty rate had been falling. But now it’s getting worse. It’s almost 70 percent of the population.”</p>
<p>Part of the problem is Honduras’ dependence on the United States, which buys nearly three-quarters of the country’s exports.</p>
<p>The U.S. financial crisis depressed demand for Honduran coffee, bananas, shrimp and apparel. Remittances from Hondurans living in the United States account for about 21 percent of the country’s GDP. But those money transfers are in a freefall.</p>
<p>In January, President Zelaya boosted the monthly minimum wage by 60 percent to about $300. He also decreed that domestic workers are entitled to social security pensions. Those moves were triumphs for the labor movement but prompted a wave of layoffs and turned the business community firmly against Zelaya.</p>
<p>Then came the coup, which was supported by many business leaders. But the World Bank, the United States and several other nations reduced their aid programs to the de facto government. Now, many Hondurans are only buying essential items.</p>
<p>“We’ve had protests and curfews and it seemed like war was about to break out,” said Alba Castaneda, who has seen her printing press business lose 40 percents of its sales and has laid off five of her 18 employees. “So people are only buying what they need, like food.”</p>
<p>Through it all, Haughey remains upbeat. He was born in New Zealand, grew up in Missouri and first came to Honduras in 2006 as a volunteer worker with homeless children. His company, called <a href="http://www.tegu.com" type="external">Tegu</a>, will build classic wooden toys embedded with magnets so they’ll fit together like Legos.</p>
<p>But he’s one of the exceptions.</p>
<p>“There’s no new foreign direct investment going on in Honduras,” Haughey said. “Any plans that were being made to put in new industry have either been put on hold or have been cancelled.”</p>
<p>Hotel owners claim the coup has been even worse for business than Hurricane Mitch, which laid waste to much of Honduras in 1998.</p>
<p>After the storm, legions of aid workers flooded Honduras and stayed in hotels for months. But in the aftermath of the June coup, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/090701/honduras-coup" type="external">street protests</a> and the temporary closure of the country’s main international airport led to an exodus of tourists and a wave of cancellations. In addition, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert recommending that Americans defer all non-essential travel to Honduras.</p>
<p>“Tegucigalpa was completely empty,” said Ana Maria Maradiaga, who runs a training school for hotel and restaurant workers. “Big hotels, small hotels, restaurants … . Tourism was dead.”</p>
<p>The crisis has also put much needed aid projects on hold.</p>
<p>“There are constantly groups coming down from the U.S., from Canada and other nations to assist with water and health projects and poverty alleviation,” Haughey said. “And those groups have put their plans on hold.”</p>
<p>Haughey and other business owners are crossing their fingers that people will eventually forget about the coup and that the incoming Lobo government will be recognized by the international community. The United States gave the election its seal of approval.</p>
<p>“Our hope is that democracy can be restored and the country’s situation can be normalized,” said Llorens, the U.S. ambassador.</p>
<p>Critics argue that such a policy would <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/the-americas/091130/honduras-elections-coup" type="external">set a bad example</a> by allowing the plotters to get away with an illegal coup. But others, especially those who cheered Zelaya's ouster, argue that turning the page will be good for business.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | In Honduras, a toy factory's quest for profit | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-12-16/honduras-toy-factorys-quest-profit | 2009-12-16 | 3 |
<p>Who made your week by speaking truth to power, blowing the whistle or standing up to injustice?</p>
<p>Truthdigger of the Week is a feature in which we recognize a person or group that made a difference.</p>
<p>See past winners <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. Nominate this week’s winner <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Last week, we recognized Navy officers <a href="" type="internal">Marissa Gaeta and Citlalic Snell</a>, the couple who put a fine point on the end of the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and made headlines—not to mention an iconic photo—with a simple and moving show of love.</p>
<p /> | Nominate Our Next Truthdigger of the Week | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/nominate-our-next-truthdigger-of-the-week-11/ | 2011-12-27 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The name of a man whose body was found floating in the Pecos River at Carlsbad on Saturday has been released, the <a href="http://www.currentargus.com/ci_15498428" type="external">Carlsbad Current-Argus</a> reported.</p>
<p>The newspaper said the man was identified as Elias Balencia, 47, of Artesia.</p>
<p>The Current-Argus said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information should contact Detective Sgt. Steve Slate at 575-885-2111, ext. 240, or the Eddy County Crime Stoppers at 575-887-1888, or text the information to 274637, key word “Stopcrime.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Monday, 12 July 2010 13:19</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A body was found floating in the Pecos River at Carlsbad over the weekend, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.</p>
<p>The body was spotted at about 3 p.m. on Saturday, floating face down in the river near the Riverside Country Club, according to the newspaper.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.currentargus.com/ci_15488128" type="external">Current-Argus</a> said that witness reports indicated it appeared to be the body of man who was wearing what appeared to be a man’s pants and shirt.</p>
<p>Law enforcement personnel were trying to identify the body, the newspaper reported.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | UPDATED: Man’s Body Found Floating in Pecos River at Carlsbad | false | https://abqjournal.com/8353/updated-mans-body-found-floating-in-pecos-river-at-carlsbad.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Imagine spending nine years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. Now imagine being cleared of all charges after a pro bono legal group proved the police were negligent. Finally, imagine being awarded a settlement of $5 million for false arrest and malicious prosecution, and being told that the city is broke and that you won’t see a penny.</p>
<p>That in a nutshell is the story of Dwayne Provience’s life. According to&#160; <a href="http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/wrongly-convicted-mans-lawsuit-against-detroit-frozen-under-bankruptcy/-/1719418/21251168/-/9qtyrwz/-/index.html" type="external">Opposing Views</a>, thirteen years ago, Provience, who was 26 at the time, had two children, a good job, and a house. Life was good — until he was arrested by Detroit police and convicted for murdering a local drug dealer. The prosecutor’s key witness was a homeless crack addict named Larry Wiley, who issued a statement saying that Provience had committed the murder in exchange for a plea deal that included the D.A.’s dropping charges against him for breaking and entering.</p>
<p>If Provience was guilty of anything, it was hiring an abysmal attorney, who never called any of the witnesses to the stand and later had his license revoked. Provience was sentenced to 32 to 62 years behind bars.</p>
<p>Provience never stopped protesting that he was innocent, and Imran J. Syed, a fellow for the Michigan Innocence Project, heard him. In 2009, Syed persuaded a judge to reopen the case, and after revisiting key pieces of evidence Provience’s sentence was commuted. He sued the city for punitive damages, noting that “nine and a half years is hell on Earth, especially if you haven’t done nothing to be there in the first place.”</p>
<p>In 2011, a mediation panel recommended $5 million dollars as a settlement. The city rejected the deal and fought unsuccessfully to have the lawsuit dismissed.</p>
<p>This week the argument became a moot point. Detroit’s assets have been frozen as the city navigates through the bankruptcy process. Provience is being told to get in line with everyone else the city has stiffed. His attorney, Wolf Mueller, said, “He’s lumped in as a creditor.”</p>
<p>Provience, who is now working as a personal trainer and rehabilitation specialist, would like to provide his children with the education he never had and pay off a huge child support debt that accumulated while he was in prison. “I think it would be vindication for me and my family,” he says.</p>
<p>Related Articles</p>
<p>For more articles and headlines, be sure to check out&#160; <a href="http://libertyunyielding.com/" type="external">Liberty Unyielding</a>.&#160;Follow me on&#160; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/NYConservativ" type="external">Twitter</a>&#160;or join me at&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manhattan-Conservative-Examiner/235366144098" type="external">Facebook</a>.</p> | Man wrongly imprisoned won’t see dime of $5M settlement because Detroit is broke | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/man-wrongly-imprisoned-wont-see-dime-5m-settlement-detroit-broke/ | 2013-12-14 | 0 |
<p>GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Sheldon House member Cheryl Taylor navigated nimbly through a buzz of activity at the clubhouse, which resembles a bustling office environment during most weekdays.</p>
<p>Taylor points out work being done by their culinary unit that organizes daily meals and runs the “Snack Shack,” and the business unit that schedules social activities, manages bus passes, updates the website, answers phones, runs an internal bank and handles a host of other duties.</p>
<p>Clubhouse members smiled as they looked up from their various duties.</p>
<p>“It’s a place to belong,” member India Knight said from her seat behind a long desk.</p>
<p>After about two years coming to Sheldon House, Knight said she still appreciates the structure it provides and perhaps even more important the sense of community. The outside world can sometimes be an unwelcoming place for those with mental illness, she said.</p>
<p>“We feel independent here,” Knight said. “And we feel accepted for who we are.”</p>
<p>The daily routine at the facility, operated by Cherry Health, was nearly brought to a standstill as budget cuts were made at the county level.</p>
<p>Grand Rapids clubhouse spared amid ‘painful’ cuts to mental health</p>
<p>The board of directors for Network 180, Kent County’s community mental health authority, were expecting to consider a recommendation to cut the program alongside several others in an effort to address a more than $10 million budget deficit. But a last-minute letter from state officials and word that local foundations might provide some funding support removed Sheldon House from the list of cuts just before they were approved by the board.</p>
<p>Working at Sheldon House’s front desk Tuesday, Jan. 9, Richard Peay was eager to express his gratitude for the self-esteem and skills like planning he has gained during his two decades there. Peay said he was happy to learn he will still be able to rely on the clubhouse for support and encouragement.</p>
<p>“They could have shut us down,” he said. “They gave us a second chance.”</p>
<p>For some, that seems appropriate because Sheldon House helped give them a second chance in life.</p>
<p>As he chopped vegetables for lunch, Rudolf Domaiar shared he was homeless about two years ago. Now, he has an apartment and is in the process of seeking permanent employment outside the clubhouse. With a little help from the staff and his fellow clubhouse members, Domaiar said he learned important lessons about what it takes to make positive changes in his life.</p>
<p>“Nobody’s going to do it for me,” he said. “I’ve got to do it for myself.”</p>
<p>Sheldon House Program Manager Tara VanDyke said the voluntary tasks can afford members a sense of purpose in their lives, and provide skills to those who will go on to seek employment in the outside world.</p>
<p>“Sometimes just having something to focus on and keep busy with takes focus away from the more negative things,” VanDyke said.</p>
<p>Stephen Worsley said he gets a lot of satisfaction from serving meals at lunchtime, which gives him a chance to meet all the members.</p>
<p>“I like communicating with everyone,” Worsley said. “It’s a friendly place to be.”</p>
<p>The clubhouse is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. during weekdays, a time when many members must leave the places they live. Usually, the clubhouse also offers a social or recreational activity on one Saturday each month.</p>
<p>Members participate in morning and afternoon meetings, where they can volunteer for daily tasks and get important information about upcoming events and other news and information, <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/01/clubhouse_members_celebrate_se.html" type="external">The Grand Rapids Press</a> reported.</p>
<p>The program, created in 1990 and accredited through Clubhouse International in 2014, also connects its members with both temporary and permanent job opportunities outside the clubhouse. Staff and community members can assist each other or just chat about problems they’re having.</p>
<p>“I learn from the other people,” said Robert Kennedy, who has been a regular at Sheldon House for about 10 years.</p>
<p>Before heading off for his morning coffee and morning tasks like folding laundry and lunch preparation, Kennedy said we was “freaked out” when he learned Sheldon House might be closing. Doing whatever it takes to help support his clubhouse has become his number one priority.</p>
<p>“Helping the club right now is more important,” Kennedy said.</p>
<p>One thing that makes the clubhouse model so unique is that it places great value on the program being a democratic system where staff and members make decisions together and share the responsibility of making the system work.</p>
<p>“Everyone is equal,” said Mary Eakins, an AmeriCorps member placed at Sheldon House. “Members are kind of encouraged to make this their own. And they get out of it whatever they want to get out of it.”</p>
<p>A four-page document outlining 37 “quality standards” expected at facilities accredited through Clubhouse International are blown up and hanging on a main hallway wall at Sheldon House. Each daily newsletter features one of the standards, reminding members and staff of their rights and responsibilities under the informal contract.</p>
<p>There is a library, computers and other materials for education and job search efforts, a laundry room, a conference room, a fitness center and even a video production studio, where members produce a regular video news program for their fellow members. Staff can assist members who seek outside employment both to make sure it’s a smooth adjustment and to ensure any financial and medical benefits they receive aren’t impacted.</p>
<p>Lucinda Holbrook, who has been coming to Sheldon House about five years, said without it she’d have nowhere to go during weekdays. It was good news when they found out the facility wouldn’t be closing.</p>
<p>“I’m just so relieved,” Holbrook said.</p>
<p>At the root of the funding problem is an unexpected change to Medicaid revenue Network 180 expected during the 2017 fiscal year. Network 180 Executive Director Scott Gilman said that resulted in a more than $10 million shortfall, draining cash reserves and forcing significant cuts to staffing and services.</p>
<p>Kent County cuts mental health services in face of $10M shortfall</p>
<p>Medicaid dollars provide the basis of funding for Sheldon House and many other mental health programs in the community.</p>
<p>Though there are ongoing fundraising efforts to fund scholarships for those who are not Medicaid-eligible, those individuals cannot currently benefit from the services Sheldon House offers.</p>
<p>That has long been a funding issue facing Sheldon House and other programs accredited through Clubhouse International. The organization stipulates the facilities should be open to all those with mental illness — not just those with Medicaid. It’s one of the only of the 37 standards the Grand Rapids-based program is unable to meet.</p>
<p>Sheldon House, which serves about 150 different people and sees about 50 people on a daily basis, would have been eliminated completely under the initial recommendation that would have narrowed Network 180′s budget gap by about $410,000.</p>
<p>The Network 180 Board of Directors still resolved to cut several other programs, amounting to total budgetary savings of about $778,000. The organization also has made staffing reductions expected to reduce expenses by another $2 million.</p>
<p>But with a remaining budget gap of more than $7 million, officials warn more cuts to Kent County’s mental health services will likely be necessary if the problem cannot be fixed on the revenue side.</p>
<p>Ottawa County residents also recently received word that the budget squeeze could impact services at the community’s Lakeshore Clubhouse, prompting a flurry of letters from members to their elected officials.</p>
<p>Holland mental health program closure ‘devastating,’ member says</p>
<p>Lakeshore Clubhouse has since been granted at least a temporary reprieve.</p>
<p>Lee Kellogg, the program officer for Clubhouse International in Michigan, said there is some fear among other clubhouse programs in the state they might face similar funding threats in the future.</p>
<p>“Clubhouses are feeling threatened and have heard rumors,” Kellogg said. “But nothing concrete.”</p>
<p>At the same time, he said, about half of the state’s 46 clubhouses have been accredited through Clubhouse International, a change spurred by studies that showed accredited clubhouses had better outcomes and were more cost-effective. The state’s system has grown to the point that other states have looked to Michigan as a model, Kellogg said, which made it an even bigger shock to learn the existence of two clubhouses in West Michigan — among the state’s most respected programs — were in jeopardy.</p>
<p>With evidence that clubhouse programs reduce spending on hospitalizations, incarceration and other services, Kellogg said there is a strong financial argument to be made to continue investing in clubhouses.</p>
<p>But the best arguments come from the stories of individual members, he said.</p>
<p>At a recent meeting of clubhouse members from across the state, Kellogg said, they discussed how the program can be difficult to describe. One of the members disagreed.</p>
<p>“He said, ‘It’s easy,’” Kellogg said. “‘Clubhouse saved my life,’ he said.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, <a href="http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids" type="external">http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids</a></p>
<p>GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Sheldon House member Cheryl Taylor navigated nimbly through a buzz of activity at the clubhouse, which resembles a bustling office environment during most weekdays.</p>
<p>Taylor points out work being done by their culinary unit that organizes daily meals and runs the “Snack Shack,” and the business unit that schedules social activities, manages bus passes, updates the website, answers phones, runs an internal bank and handles a host of other duties.</p>
<p>Clubhouse members smiled as they looked up from their various duties.</p>
<p>“It’s a place to belong,” member India Knight said from her seat behind a long desk.</p>
<p>After about two years coming to Sheldon House, Knight said she still appreciates the structure it provides and perhaps even more important the sense of community. The outside world can sometimes be an unwelcoming place for those with mental illness, she said.</p>
<p>“We feel independent here,” Knight said. “And we feel accepted for who we are.”</p>
<p>The daily routine at the facility, operated by Cherry Health, was nearly brought to a standstill as budget cuts were made at the county level.</p>
<p>Grand Rapids clubhouse spared amid ‘painful’ cuts to mental health</p>
<p>The board of directors for Network 180, Kent County’s community mental health authority, were expecting to consider a recommendation to cut the program alongside several others in an effort to address a more than $10 million budget deficit. But a last-minute letter from state officials and word that local foundations might provide some funding support removed Sheldon House from the list of cuts just before they were approved by the board.</p>
<p>Working at Sheldon House’s front desk Tuesday, Jan. 9, Richard Peay was eager to express his gratitude for the self-esteem and skills like planning he has gained during his two decades there. Peay said he was happy to learn he will still be able to rely on the clubhouse for support and encouragement.</p>
<p>“They could have shut us down,” he said. “They gave us a second chance.”</p>
<p>For some, that seems appropriate because Sheldon House helped give them a second chance in life.</p>
<p>As he chopped vegetables for lunch, Rudolf Domaiar shared he was homeless about two years ago. Now, he has an apartment and is in the process of seeking permanent employment outside the clubhouse. With a little help from the staff and his fellow clubhouse members, Domaiar said he learned important lessons about what it takes to make positive changes in his life.</p>
<p>“Nobody’s going to do it for me,” he said. “I’ve got to do it for myself.”</p>
<p>Sheldon House Program Manager Tara VanDyke said the voluntary tasks can afford members a sense of purpose in their lives, and provide skills to those who will go on to seek employment in the outside world.</p>
<p>“Sometimes just having something to focus on and keep busy with takes focus away from the more negative things,” VanDyke said.</p>
<p>Stephen Worsley said he gets a lot of satisfaction from serving meals at lunchtime, which gives him a chance to meet all the members.</p>
<p>“I like communicating with everyone,” Worsley said. “It’s a friendly place to be.”</p>
<p>The clubhouse is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. during weekdays, a time when many members must leave the places they live. Usually, the clubhouse also offers a social or recreational activity on one Saturday each month.</p>
<p>Members participate in morning and afternoon meetings, where they can volunteer for daily tasks and get important information about upcoming events and other news and information, <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/01/clubhouse_members_celebrate_se.html" type="external">The Grand Rapids Press</a> reported.</p>
<p>The program, created in 1990 and accredited through Clubhouse International in 2014, also connects its members with both temporary and permanent job opportunities outside the clubhouse. Staff and community members can assist each other or just chat about problems they’re having.</p>
<p>“I learn from the other people,” said Robert Kennedy, who has been a regular at Sheldon House for about 10 years.</p>
<p>Before heading off for his morning coffee and morning tasks like folding laundry and lunch preparation, Kennedy said we was “freaked out” when he learned Sheldon House might be closing. Doing whatever it takes to help support his clubhouse has become his number one priority.</p>
<p>“Helping the club right now is more important,” Kennedy said.</p>
<p>One thing that makes the clubhouse model so unique is that it places great value on the program being a democratic system where staff and members make decisions together and share the responsibility of making the system work.</p>
<p>“Everyone is equal,” said Mary Eakins, an AmeriCorps member placed at Sheldon House. “Members are kind of encouraged to make this their own. And they get out of it whatever they want to get out of it.”</p>
<p>A four-page document outlining 37 “quality standards” expected at facilities accredited through Clubhouse International are blown up and hanging on a main hallway wall at Sheldon House. Each daily newsletter features one of the standards, reminding members and staff of their rights and responsibilities under the informal contract.</p>
<p>There is a library, computers and other materials for education and job search efforts, a laundry room, a conference room, a fitness center and even a video production studio, where members produce a regular video news program for their fellow members. Staff can assist members who seek outside employment both to make sure it’s a smooth adjustment and to ensure any financial and medical benefits they receive aren’t impacted.</p>
<p>Lucinda Holbrook, who has been coming to Sheldon House about five years, said without it she’d have nowhere to go during weekdays. It was good news when they found out the facility wouldn’t be closing.</p>
<p>“I’m just so relieved,” Holbrook said.</p>
<p>At the root of the funding problem is an unexpected change to Medicaid revenue Network 180 expected during the 2017 fiscal year. Network 180 Executive Director Scott Gilman said that resulted in a more than $10 million shortfall, draining cash reserves and forcing significant cuts to staffing and services.</p>
<p>Kent County cuts mental health services in face of $10M shortfall</p>
<p>Medicaid dollars provide the basis of funding for Sheldon House and many other mental health programs in the community.</p>
<p>Though there are ongoing fundraising efforts to fund scholarships for those who are not Medicaid-eligible, those individuals cannot currently benefit from the services Sheldon House offers.</p>
<p>That has long been a funding issue facing Sheldon House and other programs accredited through Clubhouse International. The organization stipulates the facilities should be open to all those with mental illness — not just those with Medicaid. It’s one of the only of the 37 standards the Grand Rapids-based program is unable to meet.</p>
<p>Sheldon House, which serves about 150 different people and sees about 50 people on a daily basis, would have been eliminated completely under the initial recommendation that would have narrowed Network 180′s budget gap by about $410,000.</p>
<p>The Network 180 Board of Directors still resolved to cut several other programs, amounting to total budgetary savings of about $778,000. The organization also has made staffing reductions expected to reduce expenses by another $2 million.</p>
<p>But with a remaining budget gap of more than $7 million, officials warn more cuts to Kent County’s mental health services will likely be necessary if the problem cannot be fixed on the revenue side.</p>
<p>Ottawa County residents also recently received word that the budget squeeze could impact services at the community’s Lakeshore Clubhouse, prompting a flurry of letters from members to their elected officials.</p>
<p>Holland mental health program closure ‘devastating,’ member says</p>
<p>Lakeshore Clubhouse has since been granted at least a temporary reprieve.</p>
<p>Lee Kellogg, the program officer for Clubhouse International in Michigan, said there is some fear among other clubhouse programs in the state they might face similar funding threats in the future.</p>
<p>“Clubhouses are feeling threatened and have heard rumors,” Kellogg said. “But nothing concrete.”</p>
<p>At the same time, he said, about half of the state’s 46 clubhouses have been accredited through Clubhouse International, a change spurred by studies that showed accredited clubhouses had better outcomes and were more cost-effective. The state’s system has grown to the point that other states have looked to Michigan as a model, Kellogg said, which made it an even bigger shock to learn the existence of two clubhouses in West Michigan — among the state’s most respected programs — were in jeopardy.</p>
<p>With evidence that clubhouse programs reduce spending on hospitalizations, incarceration and other services, Kellogg said there is a strong financial argument to be made to continue investing in clubhouses.</p>
<p>But the best arguments come from the stories of individual members, he said.</p>
<p>At a recent meeting of clubhouse members from across the state, Kellogg said, they discussed how the program can be difficult to describe. One of the members disagreed.</p>
<p>“He said, ‘It’s easy,’” Kellogg said. “‘Clubhouse saved my life,’ he said.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, <a href="http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids" type="external">http://www.mlive.com/grand-rapids</a></p> | Mental health clubhouse assists Michigan residents | false | https://apnews.com/fa5851cc5e5d48c0bad18d4af7b5a941 | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Six months ago, I proclaimed “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” by Eugene O’Neill the greatest American play of the 20th century. Well, I was wrong. Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” deserves that title. For proof, see the production at The Vortex Theatre.</p>
<p>My wife explained the difference: “O’Neill’s play is personal while Miller’s play is universal.” As usual, she is right. Playwright Miller, of course, deserves first billing, but the cast assembled and directed by James Cady is extraordinary throughout, and the design elements support the fine performances. From the opening scene, I was transported.</p>
<p>At the age of 63, Miller’s Willy Loman is forced to question everything he has worked a lifetime to achieve. His job as a traveling salesman is not bringing in enough money to pay his bills, his two handsome and athletic sons have failed to fulfill their youthful promise and the values he has lived by and taught his sons-the importance of being manly and “well liked”-have proven ineffectual. We hear Willy speaking to his boss: “I put thirty-six years into this firm, Howard, and now I can’t pay my insurance! You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away-a man is not a piece of fruit.”</p>
<p>Miller lets Willy’s fevered mind focus the actions of the play. It easily moves from the present to the past and back. We see the proud father’s dreams for the gifted sports star young Biff, and we see the event in Boston that poisoned their relationship. We see his loyal wife Linda protect him from confronting distressing realities. And we see his neighbor Charlie whose family provides contrast to Willy’s. Biff’s visit home triggers explosive confrontations and heart wrenching events. The plot is brilliantly constructed, the characters real, and the dialogue believable yet often poetic.</p>
<p>John van der Meer has designed a dark, multi-level set that functions well. Jose Castro’s costumes, and John P. Aspholm’s lighting design are excellent. Joni L. Lloyd, Janine O’Neill, Christy Burbank, John Lopez, and Tim Riley help us see the importance of their small roles. Tyler Alan Strand brings powerful dimension to the character of Charlie, and Theodore Hamblin is strong as his son.</p>
<p>Happy Loman, the younger son whom Linda describes as a “philandering bum,” is memorably portrayed by Paul Hunton. The challenging role of Biff is played with intense emotions by Richard Boehler.</p>
<p>Lorri Oliver is remarkable as Linda. She understands and conveys Linda’s intricate interlace of loyal enabler and loving protector. Philip J. Shortell fully inhabits the character of Willy in an exceptional performance. Every nuance seems right. If you haven’t seen the Vortex’s “Death of a Salesman”-call for tickets NOW. — This article appeared on page F3 of the Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | ‘Death of a Salesman’ best American play | false | https://abqjournal.com/132822/death-of-a-salesman-best-american-play.html | 2012-09-23 | 2 |
<p>After making headlines for its bullish content acquisition and convergence strategy, Altice, Patrick Drahi’s Netherlands-based telecom conglomerate, has seen its share value plummet more than 40% (as of Thursday) since it unveiled its third-quarter results on Nov. 2. The company has shuffled its top management, and now says it will focus on the “basics” of improving customer experience and service.</p>
<p>The plunge in share value to 9.80 euros per share has been attributed to the poor performance of its French telecom and pay-TV group SFR, which was acquired three years ago from Vivendi – Altice’s biggest challenger in France – and now represents 48% of Altice’s revenues and 45% of its EBITDA. During the third quarter, SFR lost 75,000 broadband customers in France and posted 15.5 billion euros of debt, while Altice’s total debt reached 49.6 billion euros – more than 5.3 times its core operating profit.</p>
<p>The drop in the company’s stock was further aggravated when Morgan Stanley reduced its price target by 34% from 20.5 euros to 13.5 euros per share in the wake of the quarterly results’ publication.</p>
<p>Since then, Chief Executive Michel Combes has been pushed out, while Drahi has taken over the presidency of the shareholders’ board and will have a greater operational role in the company. Drahi also upped Alain Weill, who was previously in charge of SFR, to the post of CEO of Altice and CEO of SFR. Dexter Goei, formerly responsible for Altice USA, is now CEO of <a href="http://variety.com/t/altice-group/" type="external">Altice Group</a>.</p>
<p>“Patrick Drahi is back with a clear team and a very detailed plan to put the customer in the core of all operational decisions, restore confidence and prepare the turnaround of SFR,” said Arthur Dreyfuss, Altice’s spokesman.</p>
<p>Although the group’s U.S. unit, Altice USA, which represents about 40% of its revenues and regroups Cablevision and Suddenlink, has performed well, analysts and investors have zeroed in on the poor results of France’s SFR because Drahi had vowed, when he acquired the struggling telco, to bring it back into the black and deployed a strategy that has so far failed to meet expectations.</p>
<p>Investor skepticism of Drahi’s debt-fueled acquisition strategy is not new, but the French-Israeli billionaire had up to now been given the benefit of the doubt because of his solid track record in Israel with thriving pay-TV company HOT.</p>
<p>Over the last 18 months, Altice positioned SFR as a rival to pay-TV giant Canal Plus in France and made a flurry of high-profile acquisitions and output deals with studios, notably NBCUniversal in the U.S. and Metropolitan in France. This fall, the company also launched Altice Studio with an offer of 400 movies per year and two series per month for SFR subscribers. Besides series and movies, Altice splurged on sports rights, buying the Champions’ League exclusively for 350 millions euros for 2018 to 2021 and the Premier League for 100 million euros for 2016 to 2019.</p>
<p>So far, SFR has spent 1 billion euros in content for 2018.</p>
<p>London-based Enders Analysis said in a report Thursday that Altice would likely reduce its investment in content and consider a less confrontational pay-TV strategy. A source close to the company acknowledged that “SFR had lost subscribers in spite of this rich [content] offer because of mismanagement, under-focused customer service and a poor technical service.”</p>
<p>Drahi said during a town hall meeting Wednesday that the company would now shift its focus back onto the “basics.” Dreyfuss confirmed that “Altice would now indeed concentrate primarily on customers as well as fixing and improving the issues of SFR’s services.”</p>
<p>In the next few months, SFR is expected to follow in the footsteps of rival Canal Plus and launch different packages to target specific customers who are fans of sports and/or series and movies, according to an industry insider.</p> | Altice Stock Plummets, Forcing Change in Strategy, Top Management | false | https://newsline.com/altice-stock-plummets-forcing-change-in-strategy-top-management/ | 2017-11-16 | 1 |
<p>Besides the Zika mosquitos, poisoned swimming waters, and constant threats of violence, Rio sure seems like the perfect place to host some good-timin' summer Olympic fun.</p>
<p>On Thursday, near Rio's Olympic Park, a Russian diplomat used his jiu-jitsu training to tackle and kill a would-be robber who attacked him and his family in their car, according to Brazilian state run news agency Agencia Brasil.</p>
<p>The 60-year-old Russian vice-consul, Marcos Cesar Feres Braga, was stuck in traffic, just after the Olympic torch relay had passed on the Avenida das Americas in Barra da Tijuca. Braga was with his wife and daughter in his BMW M6 when a robber pulled up along side them on his motorcycle.</p>
<p>The criminal smashed the car window and pointed a gun at the lawyer, demanding he hand over his watch. That's when Braga, a student of jiu-jitsu, grabbed the attacker and pulled him into the vehicle, took the bad-guy's own gun and killed him with it at point blank range.</p>
<p>The armed robber's accomplice apparently saw that as his cue to leave and fled the scene.</p>
<p>In a statement to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-off-the-field/rio-olympics-2016-russian-diplomat-tackles-kills-robber-near-olympic-park-20160804-gqlk15.html" type="external">Fairfax Media</a>, Rio Civil Police said the Homicide Squad confirmed the lawyer "wrestled with the assailant and, during the fight, the assailant's gun went off killing him."</p>
<p>Criminals tried to rob a Russian diplomat near athletes village at gun point. He knew jujitsu &amp; fought back, stole gun and shot robber dead</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/04/americas/russian-diplomat-brazil-robbery/" type="external">CNN</a> reported that the Russian state news agency TASS is denying the shooting occurred. Rio's Russian Consul General is quoted as saying that no diplomat was involved "in a shootout."</p>
<p>"All Russian diplomats and the Russian foreign employees, located in Rio de Janiero, alive, healthy and to this have no relationship," he said.</p>
<p>The Russian Consul General presumably cracked a half-smile and gave a wink after that statement.</p>
<p>Footage below shows some of the violent protests that delayed the Olympic torch relay:</p>
<p>Exit thought from Captain Murtaugh, who's "getting too old for this sh*t" (warning: language):</p> | Russian Diplomat Pulls Robber Into Car And Shoots Him At The Rio Olympics | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8121/russian-diplomat-pulls-robber-car-and-shoots-him-chase-stephens | 2016-08-05 | 0 |
<p>Majorities in two key swing state Senate elections oppose blocking Obama’s Supreme Court nominee sight unseen, the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling firm found in a new survey.</p>
<p />
<p>According to the poll, which was commissioned by the liberal group Americans United for Change, 57 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania and 58 percent of the respondents in Ohio believe that the Supreme Court vacancy left in the wake of the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death should be filled this year before a new president is sworn into office in 2017.</p>
<p>Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Rob Portman (R-OH) are each running for re-election this year.</p>
<p>Among independent voters – a key constituency for both Toomey and Portman – a whopping 70 percent and 60 percent in Ohio and Pennsylvania respectively agreed that “the vacant seat on the Supreme Court caused by the death of Antonin Scalia should be filled this year.” In Ohio, 85 percent of independents want Portman to “wait to see who is nominated to the Supreme Court before deciding whether to confirm that person.” In Pennsylvania, 74 percent of independent voters want a senator to wait to see who the nominee is before choosing whether or not to confirm that person.</p>
<p>Many voters said that the Supreme Court may be a factor for them when they head to the polls in November. In both Pennsylvania and Ohio, 52 percent of voters said they would be “less likely” to support the senators for reelection if they “refuse to confirm a replacement for Justice Scalia no matter who it is.”</p>
<p>Both <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2016/02/scalia_succession_plan_becomes.html" type="external">Portman</a>and <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2016/02/scalia_succession_plan_becomes.html" type="external" /> <a href="http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/borys/index.php/2016/02/15/toomey-says-obama-should-wait-on-scalia-replacement-because-senate-will-reject-his-nominee-anyway/" type="external">Toomey</a> have said they don’t believe Obama should fill the slot in an election year.</p>
<p>The polls were conducted between Feb. 19 and 21. In Ohio, 612 voters were interviewed and the margin of error was 4 percentage points. In Pennsylvania, 859 voters were surveyed and there was an error of 3.3 percentage points.</p> | Poll: Majorities In 2 Key Swing States Want Scalia Seat Filled Before Election | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-poll-shows-toomey-and-portman-are-vulnerable-on-supreme-court | 4 |
|
<p />
<p>Every tax season, frantic filers search for ways to reduce the checks they must write to <a href="" type="internal">Uncle Sam</a>. A proven tax strategy is deducting as much as possible.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But sometimes, technically <a href="" type="internal">deductible expenses Opens a New Window.</a> are wasted because they don't meet other Internal Revenue Service rules. This is often the case for most of the miscellaneous deductions found on Schedule A.</p>
<p>The roadblock preventing the write-off of these assorted expenses is the requirement that they total more than 2% of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income, or AGI. That means a taxpayer with $50,000 in AGI must come up with more than $1,000 in miscellaneous deductions before they do him any tax good. Even then, just the amount over $1,000 is deductible. So the 50-grand filer with $1,750 in tax-allowable miscellaneous expenses can only deduct $750, not the full $1,750.</p>
<p>While the 2% limit is tough for many filers to reach, it's not impossible. You just need to know exactly what the IRS considers as allowable miscellaneous deductions. The expenses fall into three general categories: unreimbursed employee expenses, tax preparation fees and "other" expenses.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Remember that copier toner you bought that Saturday you had to work and the office machine ran dry? What about that fee you paid to become a notary public, a designation requested by your boss to speed up the flow of official documents? If you never got reimbursed for these costs, they could help reduce your personal tax bill as a miscellaneous deduction.</p>
<p>The IRS says you can deduct these expenses you paid out of your own pocket as long as they were required to do your job as an employee and were "ordinary and necessary" to your business or trade. An expense is ordinary if it is common and accepted in your type of business; it's necessary if it is appropriate and helpful to you in doing your job.</p>
<p>Because you have that percentage target to meet, be thorough here. Most taxpayers know to count the price of professional journal subscriptions and business-related meals and entertainment, but other items the IRS says you can deduct are the costs of work-related classes, legal fees and licenses. Don't overlook the price of job-required uniforms that you bought (and that aren't suitable as general attire), as well as amounts you paid for employer-required medical examinations. Even the fee to obtain the passport you needed for that overseas business trip is deductible here.</p>
<p>Certain <a href="" type="internal">home-office Opens a New Window.</a> expenses also might count, as long as the residential workspace is for the convenience of your employer and not just to save you some commuting time. And don't forget about depreciation on personal computers and cell phones you use for work. These, too, must be for your boss's convenience and required as a condition of your employment.</p>
<p>What if you've had it with your job and all its ancillary costs? You can deduct as miscellaneous expenses the amounts you spent looking for other employment in the same field.</p>
<p>Some of these expenses require you to fill out an additional tax form, schedule or work sheet. But when you get the final amount that you can deduct, report it on line 21 of Schedule A.</p>
<p>If collecting all your potential work-related deductions prompted you to seek tax help, then the IRS has a tax break for you here. And you don't have to hire a CPA to get this deduction.</p>
<p>You can deduct the cost of tax-preparation software, tax publications and even costs for associated tax-filing duties, such as copying your returns or paying for return-receipt postage or overnight delivery when you mail them.</p>
<p>If you choose electronic filing, any fee you paid for that service is deductible here. The IRS now even lets you deduct <a href="/blogs/taxes/credit-card-filing-fees-now-deductible.aspx" type="external" />the convenience fee you were charged when you paid your e-filed taxes by credit card.</p>
<p>Just remember, you deduct your tax-preparation expenses for the tax year in which you paid them, not the tax year for which you are filing. So on your 2009 return, you count the tax-related costs you incurred last year to prepare your 2008 taxes. Any expenses you fork over now to complete your current return will count when you file your 2010 forms next year.</p>
<p>Once you've totaled your tax-prep costs, enter them on line 22 of Schedule A.</p>
<p>The final 2% deduction category is "other" expenses. For most taxpayers, these are costs to produce or collect income, such as <a href="" type="internal">investment-related fees Opens a New Window.</a>, or to manage or maintain property that provides you some extra earnings.</p>
<p>For the IRS to accept these deductions, the expenses must be "reasonably and closely related to" a taxpayer's income-producing efforts. Some common expenses that meet this requirement are clerical help in caring for investments, depreciation on home computers used to track and manage investments, and the fee for a safe-deposit box in which you keep investment data. If, however, your bank box holds only jewelry and other personal items, or even tax-exempt securities, the box rental fee is not deductible.</p>
<p>You also can write off several investment-related fees that, while small, could add up. They include service charges on dividend reinvestment plans and trustee's fees you paid for your IRA. Just make sure your retirement account fee is billed separately rather than included as part of your account's general management costs, and that you pay it separately.</p>
<p>Even costs associated with a recreational activity could come into play. Take, for example, an amateur photographer who snaps shots of graduations or weddings for the neighbors and gets a few bucks in return. The shutterbug can deduct camera-related expenses as a miscellaneous expense as long as the amount isn't more than the payments he got. The IRS frowns on using hobby expenses to reduce taxes.</p>
<p>All allowable "other" miscellaneous deductions are entered on Schedule A's line 23. Then all three category amounts (lines 21, 22 and 23) are totaled. Unfortunately, because of the AGI percentage limit, that's not what you can deduct.</p>
<p>Now you must take your AGI (from line 38 of your Form 1040), multiply it by 2% and enter the amount on line 26 of your Schedule A.</p>
<p>If that income percentage is more than your miscellaneous deductions total, you're out of tax-deduction luck. You can't claim any of the expenses. But if your fractional AGI amount is less, subtract it from your miscellaneous deductions total -- the remainder is what you can claim as an itemized deduction.</p>
<p>In addition to your Schedule A calculations, you might have to complete additional tax forms or work sheets to claim some of these miscellaneous expenses. You can find a complete list of the IRS-approved deductions (and those that aren't OK), as well as the other tax paperwork each might require in IRS Publication 529, Miscellaneous Deductions. But if the extra paper gets you over the 2%-of-AGI hurdle, the time spent is probably worth it.</p>
<p>And what if your miscellaneous efforts fell a bit short this filing season? Then set up a deduction bunching strategy now to guarantee that future sundry expenses aren't wasted. This is simply bunching, or gathering your expenses into one tax year, rather than spreading the costs over several. By doing so, you often can accumulate enough expenses to exceed the deduction threshold.</p>
<p>For example, renew your business subscriptions in December instead of January or prepay your professional association dues early. This will help turn "nearly" deductible expenses one year into full-fledged tax breaks the next filing season.</p>
<p>The only downside of this plan is that it usually helps you out only every other year. When you push expenses into one year, you generally will find yourself short of the itemized deduction percentage requirement the next year. But getting the breaks on alternate tax filings is still better than missing out on them every year.</p>
<p>If you choose electronic filing, any fee you paid for that service is deductible here. The IRS now even lets you deduct the convenience fee you were charged when you paid your e-filed taxes by credit card.</p>
<p>Just remember, you deduct your tax-preparation expenses for the tax year in which you paid them, not the tax year for which you are filing. So on your 2012 return, you count the tax-related costs you incurred last year to prepare your 2011 taxes. Any expenses you fork over now to complete your current return will count when you file your 2013 forms next year.</p>
<p>Once you've totaled your tax-prep costs, enter them on line 22 of Schedule A.</p>
<p>The final 2% deduction category is "other" expenses. For most taxpayers, these are costs to produce or collect income, such as investment-related fees, or to manage or maintain property that provides you with&#160;some extra earnings.</p>
<p>For the IRS to accept these deductions, the expenses must be "reasonably and closely related to" a taxpayer's income-producing efforts. Some common expenses that meet this requirement are clerical help in caring for investments, depreciation on home computers used to track and manage investments, and the fee for a safe-deposit box in which you keep investment data. If, however, your bank box holds only jewelry and other personal items, or even tax-exempt securities, the box rental fee is not deductible.</p>
<p>You also can write off several investment-related fees that, while small, could add up. They include service charges on dividend reinvestment plans and trustee's fees you paid for your IRA. Just make sure your retirement account fee is billed separately rather than included as part of your account's general management costs, and that you pay it separately.</p>
<p>Even costs associated with a recreational activity could come into play. Take, for example, an amateur photographer who snaps shots of graduations or weddings for the neighbors and gets a few bucks in return. The shutterbug can deduct camera-related expenses as a miscellaneous expense as long as the amount isn't more than the payments he or she&#160;got. The IRS frowns on using hobby expenses to reduce taxes.</p>
<p>All allowable "other" miscellaneous deductions are entered on Schedule A's line 23. Then all three category amounts (lines 21, 22 and 23) are totaled. Unfortunately, because of the AGI percentage limit, that's not what you can deduct.</p>
<p>Now you must take your AGI (from line 38 of your Form 1040), multiply it by 2% and enter the amount on line 26 of your Schedule A.</p>
<p>If that income percentage is more than your miscellaneous deductions total, you're out of tax-deduction luck. You can't claim any of the expenses. But if your fractional AGI amount is less, subtract it from your miscellaneous deductions total -- the remainder is what you can claim as an itemized deduction.</p>
<p>In addition to your Schedule A calculations, you might have to complete additional tax forms or work sheets to claim some of these miscellaneous expenses. You can find a complete list of the IRS-approved deductions (and those that aren't OK), as well as the other tax paperwork each might require in IRS Publication 529, Miscellaneous Deductions. But if the extra paper gets you over the 2-percent-of-AGI hurdle, the time spent is probably worth it.</p>
<p>And what if your miscellaneous efforts fell a bit short this filing season? Then set up a deduction bunching strategy now to guarantee that future sundry expenses aren't wasted. This is simply bunching, or gathering your expenses into one tax year, rather than spreading the costs over several. By doing so, you often can accumulate enough expenses to exceed the deduction threshold.</p>
<p>For example, renew your business subscriptions in December instead of January, or prepay your professional association dues early. This will help turn "nearly" deductible expenses one year into full-fledged tax breaks the next filing season.</p>
<p>The only downside of this plan is that it usually helps you out only every other year. When you push expenses into one year, you generally will find yourself short of the itemized deduction percentage requirement the next year. But getting the breaks on alternate tax filings is still better than missing out on them every year.</p> | Taking Advantage of Miscellaneous Deductions | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2010/03/04/taking-advantage-miscellaneous-deductions.html | 2016-03-17 | 0 |
<p>Another day, another advance in 3-D printing technology.</p>
<p>Doctors in the Netherlands report that they have for the first time successfully replaced most of a human’s skull with a 3-D printed plastic one — and likely saved a woman's life in the process.</p>
<p>The 23-hour surgery took place three months ago at University Medical Center Utrecht. The hospital announced details of the groundbreaking operation this week and said the patient, a 22-year-old woman, is doing just fine.</p>
<p>The woman, whose name wasn’t released, suffered from severe headaches due to a thickening of her skull. She slowly lost her vision, her motor coordination was suffering and it was only a matter of time before other essential brain functions would have atrophied, Verweij said in a press release issued by UMC Utrecht.</p>
<p>Verweij noted that in some brain operations it’s common for part of the skull to be temporarily removed to reduce pressure on the brain, then put back later or replaced by an artificial implant. In this case, doctors inserted nearly an entire plastic skull that was manufactured with the help of <a href="http://www.anatomics.com/" type="external">Anatomics</a>, an Australian medical device company that specializes in 3-D printing,</p>
<p>"We used to create an implant by hand in the operating theater using a kind of cement, but those implants did not have a very good fit," Verweij said. "Now we can use 3-D printing to ensure that these components are an exact fit. This has major advantages, not only cosmetically but also because patients often have better brain function compared with the old method."</p>
<p>Three months after surgery, the woman’s pain is gone and she can see again.</p>
<p>“The patient has fully regained her vision, she has no more complaints, she's gone back to work and there are almost no traces that she had any surgery at all,” said Verweij.</p>
<p>In the video below, doctors describe the procedure in Dutch.</p>
<p /> | Medical First: 3-D Printed Skull Successfully Implanted in Woman | false | http://nbcnews.com/science/science-news/medical-first-3-d-printed-skull-successfully-implanted-woman-n65576 | 2014-03-27 | 3 |
<p />
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/FB" type="external">FB</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Social network Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) finished off 2016 with a couple of rough months. November was a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/16/facebook-inc-has-had-a-terrible-month.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">terrible month Opens a New Window.</a> thanks to a trifecta of bad news: earnings, the fake-news controversy surrounding the election, and weaknesses with Facebook's video analytics. The good news for investors is that shares are starting off 2017 with a bang, with shares putting up a strong recovery and gaining 11% within a matter of weeks.</p>
<p>Of the three November events, third-quarter earnings were by far the most meaningful. While the results themselves were fine, what spooked investors was the company's guidance for 2017. Specifically, CFO David Wehner <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/03/facebook-earnings-and-deja-vu.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">warned Opens a New Window.</a> that "ad load will play a less significant factor driving revenue growth after mid-2017." Combined with the company's plan to invest aggressively in the business throughout 2017, investors were worried about Facebook's ability to perform with both the top and bottom lines. I've already made the case that this will play out just like it did in 2014, where shares dipped on <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/03/why-you-shouldnt-worry-about-facebooks-rising-cost.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">almost identical remarks Opens a New Window.</a> only to subsequently soar to new all-time highs.</p>
<p>At least one Street analyst agrees with that assessment.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Last Friday, Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler upgraded his rating on Facebook (via <a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2017/01/13/facebook-ad-load-concerns-overblown-says-raymond-james/" type="external">Tech Trader Daily Opens a New Window.</a>), from outperform to strong buy, in part because he believes investors are overly concerned about Facebook's ad load. There are the other factors that Wehner had mentioned as important contributors to revenue growth (user growth, increased time spent, and increased advertiser demand), and Kessler is confident that continued strong performance in these areas can help offset any deceleration in ad load growth.</p>
<p>Image source: Facebook.</p>
<p>Analysts are expecting Facebook to put up revenue growth of approximately 35% for 2017, a natural deceleration from the roughly 55% growth that Facebook is expected to post for 2016 (fourth-quarter results aren't due out until Feb. 1). The fear is that Facebook falls short of 35% growth for the year if it takes a more measured approach to ad load for the sake of user experience. But Kessler thinks that growth target is "very achievable," thanks to strong expected performance in the other areas that contribute to Facebook's top line. Specifically, Kessler is modeling for 12.5% growth in daily active users (DAUs), a 6.5% bump in time spent, and a 6.7% increase in ad prices. The analyst estimates that ad load will grow by a more modest 4.5%, down from 13.5% ad load growth in 2016.</p>
<p>Spending at social ad agencies continues to rise (in the range of 20% to 30%), and Facebook continues to attract strong advertiser demand as it hones its ad targeting. The overall social ad market remains strong, and Facebook stands to capture most of that growth as the dominant social media platform.</p>
<p>Kessler is maintaining the same price target of $160, which represents considerable upside even relative to the all-time high of $133.50 that Facebook set late last year before the November sell-off.</p>
<p>Find out why Facebook is one of the 10 best stocks to buy nowMotley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. (In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market!*)</p>
<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now. Facebook <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%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;impression=2f3d50f1-5cd1-4d54-bc3c-6c0eccb5b880&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">is on the list Opens a New Window.</a> -- but there are nine others you may be overlooking.</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%3Disaeditxt0000450%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6313%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch&amp;impression=2f3d50f1-5cd1-4d54-bc3c-6c0eccb5b880&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. 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> | Stop Worrying About Facebook's Ad Load | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/17/stop-worrying-about-facebook-ad-load.html | 2017-01-17 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Ian Anthony Dale’s latest TV project, “Murder in the First” is a hit on TNT. (Courtesy of Gabriel Goldberg)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Life is changing quickly for Ian Anthony Dale.</p>
<p>The 35-year-old actor is reveling at the fact that his new TV show, “Murder in the First” is a hit.</p>
<p>Oh, and he’s bought his first house.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It’s been a wild ride,” he says. “It’s always great to have an audience love what you do and we have found that with the TV show.”</p>
<p>Dale plays Lt. Jim Koto in the TNT drama series which is the latest from Steven Bochco.</p>
<p>The show follows San Francisco homicide detectives Terry English and Hildy Mulligan — played by Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson — as they investigate what originally appears to be two unrelated murders. Ultimately, they learn both victims have ties to Silicon Valley prodigy Erich Blunt, played by Tom Felton.</p>
<p>Dale is part of the investigation team that helps out the team.</p>
<p>“Jim Koto was tailor made for an actor like myself,” Dale says. “It’s a rare opportunity to play a character like Jim.”</p>
<p>Dale says one of the traits that he shares with Koto is ambition.</p>
<p>“Jim aspires to be mayor of San Francisco one day,” he says. “He’s straddling the line between being a cop and a politician.”</p>
<p>The season premiered on June 9 to 4.9 million viewers, which made it a hit for the cable network. The series airs on Mondays.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Filming for the show began in February and wrapped up in late May.</p>
<p>Ian Anthony Dale stars in the drama, “Murder in the First.” The TV show premiered with almost 5 million viewers in June. (Courtesy of Gabriel Goldberg)</p>
<p>“It was a pretty quick shoot and I’ve never worked on such a condensed season before,” he says. “Just when we were getting going, we were saying our goodbyes.”</p>
<p>Being on “Murder in the First” is sort of a reunion for Dale and his co-star Diggs.</p>
<p>The two starred in the short-lived ABC series, “Daybreak.”</p>
<p>“It was a reunion of sorts,” he says. “The two of us have this rather offensive blaxploitation skit that we act out during our down time on set. It’s a really relaxed environment.”</p>
<p>Dale has starred in films such as “Tekken,” “The Hangover,” “The Bucket List” and “Mr. 3000.”</p>
<p>While his movie career is flourishing, TV work has been a staple for the actor.</p>
<p>Aside from “Murder in the First,” Dale has appeared as a regular in “Hawaii Five-O” as Adam Noshimuri.</p>
<p>He’s also been in “American Horror Story,” “Emily Owens M.D.,” “The Mentalist,” “Burn Notice,” “The Event,” “Charmed” and “Las Vegas.”</p>
<p>Yet when it comes to the characters that Dale plays, he admits that he’s drawn more to the story.</p>
<p>“I like characters that are wrestling with conflict,” he says. “Even with Jim, you see him struggle to do what is right for his team. He gets stuck a little but finds a resolution.”</p>
<p>Dale says he isn’t too choosy when it comes to which genre a project will be in.</p>
<p>“I just want the character to have a strong story,” he says. “It’ll help me stretch as an actor.”</p>
<p>Now that the show is done filming, Dale says he’s going to audition all summer and look for his next opportunity in film and TV.</p>
<p>Though he’s been working for a long time, he still finds the audition process intimidating.</p>
<p>“I still get nervous because of the pressure that I put on myself,” he says. “Then I remember to have fun. Once I do that, I’m very relaxed and can be myself. In this business it only takes one audition that can change your life. It’s a very powerful thing.”</p>
<p>While Dale has never filmed anything in New Mexico, he has taken notice of the projects filming in the state.</p>
<p>He says — like every other actor — that he would have loved to be in “Breaking Bad.”</p>
<p>“I hear they are doing the prequel out there,” he says. “Maybe I still have a chance for that.”</p>
<p>While the auditions will come around, Dale says he’s more than happy to begin working on his house.</p>
<p>“There’s so much work to do,” he laughs. “There’s about 65 years of rust that I have to work with and an entire redesign.”</p>
<p>As for the show, Dale says he’s been watching it with his family and friends.</p>
<p>“I saw the premiere episode and was very impressed,” he says. “Now I’m hearing from my family and they are the gauge that I use when something is bad or good. They are liking it and we’re just waiting to see if we get picked up for a second season.”</p>
<p>Ian Anthony Dale has starred in numerous TV shows. He’s making his way into more films. (Courtesy of Gabriel Goldberg)</p>
<p />
<p /> | Ian Anthony Dale dishes on TNT’s ‘Murder in the First’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/423756/ian-anthony-dale-dishes-on-tnts-murder-in-the-first.html | 2014-06-30 | 2 |
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrat Randy Bryce has raised $1.2 million over the last three months of 2017 in his run against Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.</p>
<p>Bryce’s campaign said Tuesday more than 80,000 people have made more than 102,000 contributions.</p>
<p>Another Democrat in the race, Janesville school board member Cathy Myers, raised just short of $183,000 and had $107,000 cash on hand. Bryce has not yet reported how much cash he has.</p>
<p>Myers says she has gotten more than 10,000 donations from more than 7,000 supporters to date.</p>
<p>Bryce is a union iron worker who made a splash on the national scene with his campaign launch video and colorful nickname of “Iron Stache.”</p>
<p>Ryan has not yet reported his fundraising totals for the quarter.</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrat Randy Bryce has raised $1.2 million over the last three months of 2017 in his run against Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.</p>
<p>Bryce’s campaign said Tuesday more than 80,000 people have made more than 102,000 contributions.</p>
<p>Another Democrat in the race, Janesville school board member Cathy Myers, raised just short of $183,000 and had $107,000 cash on hand. Bryce has not yet reported how much cash he has.</p>
<p>Myers says she has gotten more than 10,000 donations from more than 7,000 supporters to date.</p>
<p>Bryce is a union iron worker who made a splash on the national scene with his campaign launch video and colorful nickname of “Iron Stache.”</p>
<p>Ryan has not yet reported his fundraising totals for the quarter.</p> | Democrat Randy Bryce raises $1.2 million over 3 months | false | https://apnews.com/9aea8b3014d44bdb8e361f3f9c4fb342 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>The <a href="http://variety.com/t/british-academy-of-film-and-television-arts/" type="external">British Academy of Film and Television Arts</a> Los Angeles announced on Wednesday that <a href="http://variety.com/t/matt-damon/" type="external">Matt Damon</a> will be the recipient of the&#160; <a href="http://variety.com/t/stanley-kubrick/" type="external">Stanley Kubrick</a> Britannia Award for Excellence in Film at this year’s ceremony.</p>
<p>“Matt Damon is undoubtedly one of the most talented and respected&#160;actors working in film today,” said BAFTA Los Angeles chairman Kieran Breen. “Having made a remarkable impact at a young age with ‘Good Will Hunting,’ he has developed a phenomenal career — combining both big-budget&#160;studio&#160;movies and acclaimed independent&#160;films. As a favorite of some of the top contemporary directors in our industry, it seems particularly fitting that we are honoring his career with an award bearing the name of the&#160;legendary&#160;Stanley Kubrick.”</p>
<p>The Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award&#160;is given to individuals “upon whose work is stamped the indelible mark of authorship and commitment, and who has lifted the craft to new heights.” Damon is an award-winning actor, writer, and producer best known for “Good Will Hunting,” and his recurring roles in the “Bourne” and “Ocean’s” franchises.&#160;Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Robert Downey Jr., George Clooney, Warren Beatty, Jeff Bridges, Tom Cruise, Daniel Day Lewis, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, George Lucas, Sean Penn, Steven Spielberg, and Denzel Washington have previously received the prize.</p>
<p>This year’s awards ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton on Oct. 27 and is BAFTA’s biggest annual event outside of the U.K. The ceremony celebrates individuals, British and otherwise, whose body of work has made a significant contribution to the world of British entertainment. Dick van Dyke, Ava DuVernay, Claire Foy, and Kenneth Branagh will also receive awards.</p> | Matt Damon to Receive Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award | false | https://newsline.com/matt-damon-to-receive-stanley-kubrick-britannia-award/ | 2017-09-20 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe County residents may soon be asked to vote on a tax increase that would raise cash for county Fire Department expenses.</p>
<p>The Santa Fe County Commission got the ball rolling Tuesday when it agreed to hold a public hearing and vote later this month on a tax ordinance.</p>
<p>If approved by commissioners, a popular election on the tax will be held later this year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Commissioners expressed support for the proposal, which would put in place a quarter-cent gross receipts tax increase for fire equipment, vehicles, buildings and other needs. State law mandates the revenue cannot be used for salaries or benefits.</p>
<p>The tax would apply to sales by businesses located in county territory outside Santa Fe County’s incorporated municipalities of Santa Fe, Española and Edgewood.</p>
<p>The tax rate in county territory outside the city limits is now 6.625 percent, most if from the state GRT of 5.125 percent.</p>
<p>The tax would go to 6.875 percent if the tax proposal goes through.</p>
<p>“I totally support this. I can’t think of a better purpose for our taxpayers’ money, particularly at a time when we’re in the throes of so much fire danger,” Commissioner Virginia Vigil said.</p>
<p>The fire protection excise tax has been around since the mid-1980s, though in a cycle of expiration and public renewal. It last expired in December 2008.</p>
<p>In 2009, Santa Fe residents soundly defeated a proposal to again implement the tax. In the election, only about 5 percent of 37,000 county voters eligible to cast ballots did so.</p>
<p>Opponents of the 2009 proposal — the highest-profile group was the Republican Party of Santa Fe County — argued that it was unfair to place the burden on local taxpayers.</p>
<p>While not disputing the fire department’s needs, they said the county should find ways to fund the department’s expenses using existing resources.</p>
<p>County Fire Chief David Sperling told commissioners Tuesday that, once the department’s basic expenses are taken care of, there isn’t much money left over to pay for capital improvements. He estimated the tax would bring in around $1.24 million annually.</p>
<p>If the tax is approved, it probably wouldn’t have to come back to voters again anytime soon. Legislation passed by the state a few years ago essentially eliminated expiration dates for fire taxes.</p> | Fire Dept. Tax Hike Considered | false | https://abqjournal.com/117695/fire-dept-tax-hike-considered.html | 2012-07-11 | 2 |
<p>Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized for about three hours Thursday after experiencing heart-related shortness of breath — but he didn't have a heart attack — Justice Department officials told NBC News.</p>
<p>Holder experienced similar symptoms "several years ago" that didn't require serious medical attention, <a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/February/14-ag-213.html" type="external">the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday afternoon</a>.</p>
<p>Holder's became short of breath and began feeling lightheaded during his regular morning meeting with senior staff, the Justice Department said.</p>
<p>A Justice Department official who was in the meeting told NBC News that Holder mentioned that he wasn't feeling well and excused himself. The official described it as "nothing sudden or traumatic."</p>
<p>Another official said Holder, 63, an avid basketball player in generally good health, had been feeling under the weather all week.</p>
<p>Holder was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center by ambulance, the Justice Department statement said. He was joking with paramedics on the way, and he was alert, comfortable and talking with his doctors while at the hospital, department officials said.</p>
<p>Holder was discharged 1:15 p.m., and was able to walk out of the hospital without assistance. H was resting comfortably at home Thursday afternoon, the Justice Department statement said.</p>
<p>He had been scheduled to attend a White House event with President Barack Obama later in the day. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the president wished Holder a speedy recovery.</p>
<p>— Pete Williams</p> | Holder Hospitalized and Released After Shortness of Breath | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/holder-hospitalized-released-after-shortness-breath-n40186 | 2014-02-28 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>A range of tough policy questions will be on the agenda at this year's Domenici conference, including the nation's aging infrastructure, U.S. energy independence, regional economic development and Middle East policy.</p>
<p>DOMENICI</p>
<p>In its eighth year, the 2015 Domenici Public Policy Conference will be held Sept. 16 and 17 at the Las Cruces Convention Center. The conference named for former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici is hosted by New Mexico State University's Domenici Institute.</p>
<p>It opens on a theme plaguing communities across New Mexico and the country: outdated infrastructure. Speakers include U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Andrew Herrmann, former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt's keynote speech will center on the role of education in economic development.</p>
<p>PETERS</p>
<p>HERRMANN</p>
<p>CHRISTENSEN</p>
<p>"The caliber of this year's event is a testament to Sen. Domenici's active involvement in the conference's planning," said NMSU President and former New Mexico Gov. Garrey Carruthers. "Topics such as economic development, the nation's aging infrastructure and our focus on energy independence are important to people not just around our region, but across the country."</p>
<p>On Thursday, Sept. 17, talks on regional economic development, including an address by Gov. Susana Martinez, will dovetail into a conversation about U.S. energy independence and energy in the Americas.</p>
<p>MARTINEZ</p>
<p>HUNT</p>
<p>FORD</p>
<p>Domenici will introduce the topic, and an address by Dana Christensen, deputy director of science and technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will follow.</p>
<p>Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who served in the war-divided country from 2010 to 2014, will speak about Middle East policy.</p>
<p>"We're excited to host such an outstanding program for 2015," Carruthers said.</p>
<p>Conference registration costs $50 for members of the public, as well as NMSU faculty and staff. All university students may attend for free.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Domenici conference set to begin Sept. 16 | false | https://abqjournal.com/640093/domenici-conference-set-to-begin-sept-16.html | 2 |
|
<p>The U.S. Coast Guard continues to search for the captain of the tall ship, HMS Bounty, which floundered on Monday off North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras</p>
<p>The ship ran into trouble as the crew tried to escape Hurricane Sandy’s fury, causing the entire crew to abandon ship. Of the ship's 16 crew members, 14 were rescued Monday morning. Another, a woman, was found later in the day, alive, but succumbed to her injuries after being rescued.</p>
<p>The ship's captain remains unaccounted for, while the ship itself is reported to have sunk.</p>
<p>The HMS Bounty was built for MGM studios in 1960 for the classic movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty,” starring Marlon Brando.</p>
<p>It was built according to the plans of the original 18th century ship.</p>
<p>The Bounty also appeared in one version of Treasure Island, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”</p>
<p>For the last 20 years or so, it’s served as an educational vessel.</p>
<p>Sailors say heading out to sea in a storm is quite normal.</p>
<p>“Ships are meant to sail,” said one former sailor, Kelsey Freeman. “And they generally are going to float a lot better when they’re out to sea than if they’re tied to a dock.”</p>
<p>Freeman spent seven years working on tall ships.</p>
<p>In a storm like this, he says, where the waters rise because of a storm surge, you have to leave extra slack on the ropes. As a result, in port, the ship will “move around a lot and probably dash itself to bits on the rocks.”</p>
<p>Looking at the map, it seems the Bounty just didn’t have enough room to skirt the storm, he said.</p>
<p>But the Bounty encountered a more critical problem according to the ship’s official Facebook page. It lost power.</p>
<p>“If your only pumps are electrically based and you lose your electricity, then it becomes an issue of when you will sink, not if,” he said.</p> | Sandy claims tall ship HMS Bounty off coast of North Carolina | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-10-30/sandy-claims-tall-ship-hms-bounty-coast-north-carolina | 2012-10-30 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Assault charges bring 57 months</p>
<p>A Jemez Pueblo man was sentenced Tuesday to 57 months in federal prison for two separate assaults.</p>
<p>Jerome Dominic Concha, 20, also faces three years of supervised release for the assaults, one that occurred on Jan. 7, 2011, against a Taos Pueblo man, and another on July 27, 2012, against a Jemez Pueblo man.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Concha also was ordered to pay $13,359 to the Indian Health Services in Taos and Jemez pueblos to cover the costs of medical care for his victims.</p>
<p>The Taos Pueblo man had to undergo surgery to repair extensive damage to the bone structure of the orbit of the eye and nasal bone fractures, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.</p>
<p>The Jemez Pueblo man, hit in the face and head with a hatchet, suffered serious injuries, including a skull fracture, a fracture to the jaw and upper palate, and the loss of multiple teeth.</p>
<p />
<p>2 SF men charged in coke trafficking</p>
<p>Two Santa Fe men were arrested after a five-month investigation into cocaine trafficking conducted by the Region III Drug Enforcement Task Force.</p>
<p>Arrested were Juan Almeida-Arredondo, 29, and Manuel Dominguez-Mendoza, 26, both of Santa Fe.</p>
<p>The task force’s news release does not say when the arrests took place, but the website for the Santa Fe County jail shows Almeida-Arredondo was booked on July 17.</p>
<p>Almeida-Arredondo faces state drug charges and both men face federal immigration charges.</p>
<p>Just under 8 ounces of cocaine, along with two handguns and over $4,700 in cash were seized during the operation, according to the news release.</p> | Around Northern New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/228027/around-northern-new-mexico-443.html | 2 |
|
<p>Jerry Lewis died of heart disease, authorities in Las Vegas said,&#160;but the wording of his death certificate differed from what was reported earlier, The Associated Press reported.</p>
<p>Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said on Monday that Lewis' official cause of death was end-stage cardiac disease and peripheral vascular disease.</p>
<p>Lewis was the clownish comic hailed as an artistic genius and the host for decades of annual muscular dystrophy telethons.</p>
<p>He died Sunday of natural causes in Las Vegas at age 91.</p>
<p>Fudenberg said coroner deputies had been told Lewis died of ischemic cardiomyopathy.</p>
<p>Ferozan Malal was the hospice and palliative medicine physician in Las Vegas who signed Lewis' death certificate.</p>
<p>She told the AP that peripheral vascular disease and ischemic cardiomyopathy both fall under the category of end-stage cardiac disease.</p> | Jerry Lewis Cause of Death: End-Stage Cardiac Disease | false | https://newsline.com/jerry-lewis-cause-of-death-end-stage-cardiac-disease/ | 2017-08-22 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Yet, largely by the force of his own tugs on his own bootstraps, against all odds, here he is: Devonta Tabannah, finishing his college football career on his own terms with a college degree in his sights.</p>
<p>“I’m grateful first, very grateful,” Tabannah, a senior defensive back for the New Mexico Lobos, said in an interview this week. “It’s an honor to be in the shoes I am today.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />“I constantly give thanks to God, thanks to the people around me who continue to give me opportunities to succeed.”</p>
<p>The barriers to that success, both in athletics and academics, have been many and varied – mostly of Tabannah’s own making.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“There’s so many stories (about Tabannah’s wild ride),” UNM coach Bob Davie said, smiling. “… It’s just fun to see a guy like that that’s battled so much, to get a degree from the University of New Mexico. I’m really, really proud of him.”</p>
<p>Tabannah is from Washington, D.C., but attended Potomac High School in Oxon Hill, Md. A fast, athletic cornerback, he had a dozen college offers – mostly from smaller schools – but chose to attend New Mexico. Mike Locksley, then UNM’s head coach and like Tabannah a D.C. native, recruited him personally. Tabannah signed a letter of intent in February 2010.</p>
<p>Barrier No.1: Some of Tabannah’s high school credits did not meet the standards of the NCAA Clearinghouse. He didn’t enroll until the next January and thus became a member of the 2011 UNM recruiting class.</p>
<p>Barrier No.2: Four games into Tabannah’s freshman season, Locksley was fired. The young man’s head was swimming.</p>
<p>“Losing your coach within four games, it was a big shock, a big awakening,” he said.</p>
<p>As the season progressed, under interim coach George Barlow, Tabannah paid little attention to his studies.</p>
<p>“Thinking back to then,” he said, “I was a foolish guy with some foolish ways.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When Davie arrived at UNM in December 2011, Tabannah’s academics were in such sorry shape that the new coach thought it a hole too deep to climb out of. Yet, he saw something in the young man.</p>
<p>“You can’t help but like him,” Davie said. “I liked him from the moment I saw him. With that, he tested my patience early on.</p>
<p>“(But) he’s a fighter. He’s got the personality, he really does. He’s got the personality and spunk to be successful.”</p>
<p>Tabannah dug in, passing some intersession courses and taking an academic load of 21 hours in the spring of 2012. By August, he was eligible and a team member in good standing.</p>
<p>Not for long.</p>
<p>Barrier No. 3: On Aug. 26, 2012, Tabannah was arrested on charges of DWI, driving without a driver’s license, having no proof of insurance, having no vehicle registration and having no valid license plate.</p>
<p>“Another self-inflicted mistake,” Davie said at the time.</p>
<p>Yet, 11 days later, Tabannah was reinstated.</p>
<p>“It’s just the way he’s handled his business,” Davie said.</p>
<p>Barrier No. 4: Later that fall, Tabannah veered off course again. Davie suspended him the first week of November, saying only, “He made a bad decision.”</p>
<p>Of the entire scenario, Tabannah said: “I made the load a lot heavier on myself, honestly, on me and the coaching staff by … not handling my business as a Lobo.”</p>
<p>Once again, however, Davie chose to give Tabannah another chance to succeed. As the 2013 spring semester began, the junior cornerback was back on the team.</p>
<p>Since then, no more barriers.</p>
<p>“It hasn’t been easy,” Davie said. “He’s not all of a sudden just the guy without any glitches; he’ll tell you that. But he’s come so far, for him to be here.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t anything I did. It’s what he did.”</p>
<p>Tabannah said he’s on schedule to graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.</p>
<p>On the field, he has never been a star but has grown as a contributor. When UNM takes the field Saturday in the season finale against Wyoming at University Stadium, he’ll be a starter in the Lobos “nickel” (five defensive backs) package.</p>
<p>Saturday is Senior Day, and Tabannah’s mother and grandmother will be here to celebrate this rite of passage.</p>
<p>“The emotion will probably be more internal,” he said. “I’ll probably have a lot of fire, hopefully, a lot of rage to help get the guys going, a little motivation. But, man, I’m blessed again just to play with this group of guys that we’re leaving behind.</p>
<p>“That’s probably the biggest part. Seeing the change and knowing what I’m leaving behind is probably the biggest thing.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Tabannah overcame barriers to succeed at UNM | false | https://abqjournal.com/502566/tabannah-overcame-barriers.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Image source: Computer Sciences Corp.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC) jumped on Friday after the company reported its fiscal third-quarter results, wherein it beat analyst estimates for both revenue and earnings. The stock was up about 9.5% by 11 a.m. EST.</p>
<p>Computer Sciences reported third-quarter revenue of $1.92 billion, up 9.5% year over year and about $20 million higher than the average analyst estimate. The global business services segment generated $1.05 billion of revenue, up 18.1% year over year, or up 22.3% adjusted for currency. Acquisitions drove some of the growth in addition to strength in business process services.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The global infrastructure services segment produced $871 million of revenue, up just 0.8% year over year, or up 4.9% adjusted for currency. Again, acquisitions drove some of the growth. The segment was awarded $1.3 billion of new business during the quarter, and the company noted a mix shift toward cloud-based software solutions.</p>
<p>Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.81, up from $0.73 in the prior-year period and $0.11 higher than analysts expected. Adjusted free cash flow totaled $299 million during the quarter, up from $169 million during the prior-year period. Computer Sciences expects to produce non-GAAP EPS between $2.75 and $3.00 for fiscal 2017, unchanged from its previous outlook.</p>
<p>Computer Sciences CEO Mike Lawrie discussed the areas of strength during the third quarter, as well as the company's upcoming merger with the enterprise services business of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise:</p>
<p>Solid revenue and earnings growth led investors to push up the stock on Friday. Shares of Computer Sciences have now nearly doubled since the merger announcement last May, with investors betting that the combination will lead to a stronger business in the future.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Computer Sciences When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=750dec41-119f-472b-b208-22f6bad5dec2&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 Computer Sciences 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=750dec41-119f-472b-b208-22f6bad5dec2&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 January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Shares of Computer Sciences Corp. Are Rising Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/03/why-shares-computer-sciences-corp-are-rising-today.html | 2017-02-03 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-4R6" type="external">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>As the public’s attention is firmly placed on an estranged Navy Yard shooter, Obama moves forward with the West’s proxy destabilization campaign in Syria,&#160;continuing to arm rebel-terror groups despite Russia’s diplomacy.</p>
<p>The United States president <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-waives-ban-on-arming-terrorists-to-allow-aid-to-syrian-opposition/article/2535885" type="external">has waived the federal law prohibiting the supply of weapons to known terrorist organizations</a>, citing&#160;the Arms Export Control Act. The act gives the president the right to waive congressional oversight during a state of emergency. However, the act also stipulates that arms export transactions be handled by government entities, not international terror groups.</p>
<p>This comes after&#160; <a href="" type="internal">resounding public disapproval over a planned military strike in Syria,</a>&#160;exposing the West’s “designer democracy” and “Arc of Crisis” pursuits planned for Syria as well as Iran.</p>
<p>While no one can argue that there is a crisis of terrorism and Islamic extremism running rampant in Syria, what kind of state of emergency is it for United States interests, now that Russia has crafted a diplomatic solution that seems sensible to avoid a larger conflict?&#160;</p>
<p>The truth is, the public is awakening to&#160;the bigger picture&#160;as&#160;Washington and Tel Aviv surrogates have continued to breathe life into a&#160; <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/breaking-news-rebels-admit-gas-attack-result-of-mishandling-chemical-weapons" type="external">&#160;failed chemical weapons narrative in Syria, a narrative that has been manufactured.</a>This latest move by Obama comes at a time where he and his administration have been obsessed with gun control legislation, seeking to limit the American public’s right to use certain firearms, while quietly arming rebel-terror groups to the teeth in Syria.</p>
<p>The hypocrisy over domestic gun control, while simultaneously supplying heavy artillery to rebel-terror groups in Syria is staggering.&#160;</p>
<p>According to the&#160;Nelson-Bingham&#160;Amendment&#160;contained within the AECA act, all large arms deals of defense equipment valued&#160;in excess of $25 million are to be conducted through government-to-government transactions.&#160;</p>
<p>What does it mean if they give $25 million away in equipment, wouldn’t that be a distortion of the AECA act itself, as they&#160;openly traffic arms to known terror organizations with impunity?</p>
<p>The latest analysis from strategic defense consultants at IHS Jane’s confirms that <a href="" type="internal">the rebel factions in Syria are full of&#160;al Qaeda linked rebel-terror groups and Islamic extremists</a>.</p>
<p>Now we see Israel’s silent involvement coming to light, as Israeli&#160;Ambassador Michael Oren is openly promoting Assad’s fall.</p>
<p>Reuters summarizes&#160;Israel’s position below…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.israelemb.org/washington/NewsAndEvents/AmbassadorPhotos/MichaelOrenOfficial.jpg" type="external" />IMAGE:&#160;Ambassador Michael Oren&#160; <a href="http://www.israelemb.org/washington/NewsAndEvents/AmbassadorPhotos/MichaelOrenOfficial.jpg" type="external" />In public shift, Israel calls for Assad’s fall</p>
<p>Reuters&#160;</p>
<p>Dan Williams</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/israel?lc=int_mb_1001" type="external">Israel</a>&#160;wants to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad toppled, its ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday, in a shift from its non-committal public stance on its neighbor’s civil war.</p>
<p>Even Assad’s defeat by al Qaeda-aligned rebels would be preferable to Damascus’s current alliance with Israel’s arch-foe&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran" type="external">Iran</a>, Ambassador Michael Oren said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post.</p>
<p>His comments marked a move in Israel’s public position on Syria’s two-and-1/2-year-old war.</p>
<p>Though old enemies, a stable stand-off has endured between the two countries during Assad’s rule and at times&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/israel?lc=int_mb_1001" type="external">Israel</a>&#160;had pursued peace talks with him in hope of divorcing&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/syria" type="external">Syria</a>&#160;from Tehran and Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had long avoided openly calling for the Syrian president’s fall. Some Israeli officials now worry that radical Sunni Islamist insurgents fighting Assad will eventually turn their guns on the Jewish state.</p>
<p>But with Assad under U.S.-led condemnation for his forces’ alleged chemical attack on a rebel district of Damascus on August 21, Oren said Israel’s message was that he must go.</p>
<p>“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by <a href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran?lc=int_mb_1001" type="external">Iran</a>&#160;to the bad guys who were backed by Iran,” Oren said in the interview, excerpted on Tuesday before its full publication on Friday.</p>
<p>Assad’s overthrow would also weaken the alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, Oren said.</p>
<p>“The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc,” he said.</p>
<p>Oren said that other anti-Assad rebels were less radical than the Islamists.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/us-syria-crisis-israel-idUSBRE98G0DR20130917?feedType=RSS&amp;irpc=932" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Obama to continue proxy in Syria despite Russia’s ‘diplomatic solution’ | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/09/18/obama-to-continue-proxy-in-syria-even-after-russias-diplomatic-solution/ | 2013-09-18 | 4 |
<p>Once again we’re closing the barn door after the horse is out and gone. In Washington the Federal Reserve has finally acted to stop some of the predatory lending that exploited people’s need for money.&#160; And like Rip Van Winkle, Congress is finally waking up from a long doze under the warm sun of laissez faire economics.&#160; That’s French for turning off the alarm until the burglars have made their getaway.</p>
<p>Philosophy is one reason we do this to ourselves; when you worship market forces as if they were the gods of Olympus, then the gods can do no wrong — until, of course, they prove to be human. Then we realize we should have listened to our inner agnostic and not been so reverent in the first place.</p>
<p>But we also get into these terrible dilemmas – where the big guys step all over everyone else and the victims are required to pay the hospital bills – because we refuse to recognize the connection between money and politics. This is the great denial in democracy that may ultimately mean our ruin.&#160; We just don’t seem able to see or accept the fact that money drives policy.&#160; It’s no wonder that Congress and the White House have been looking the other way as the predators picked the pockets of unsuspecting debtors.&#160; Mega banking and investment firms have been some of the biggest providers of the cash vital to keeping incumbents in office. There isn’t much appetite for biting – or regulating – the manicured hand that feeds them.</p>
<p>Guess who gave the most money to candidates in this 2007-08 federal election cycle?&#160; That’s right, the financial services and real estate industries. They stuffed nearly $250 million dollars into the candidate coffers.&#160; The about-to-be-bailed-out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together are responsible for about half the country’s $12 trillion mortgage debt. Lisa Lerer of Politico.com reports that over the past decade, the two financial giants with the down home names have spent nearly $200 million on campaign contributions and lobbying. According to Lerer, “They’ve stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House.”</p>
<p>Last Sunday’s New York Times put it as bluntly as anyone ever has: “In Washington, Fannie and Freddie’s sprawling lobbying machine hired family and friends of politicians in their efforts to quickly sideline any regulations that might slow their growth or invite greater oversight of their business practices. Indeed, their rapid expansion was, at least in part, the result of such artful lobbying over the years.”</p>
<p>What a beautiful term: “artful lobbying.”&#160; It means honest graft. Look at any of the important issues bogged down in the swampland along the Potomac and you don’t have to scrape away the muck too deeply to find that campaign cash is at the core of virtually every impasse.&#160; We’re spending more than six percent of our salaries on gasoline, and global warming keeps temperatures rising but the climate bill was killed last month and President Bush just got rid of his daddy’s longtime ban on offshore drilling.&#160; Only in a fairy tale would anyone believe it’s just coincidence that the oil and gas industries have donated more than $18 million to federal candidates this year, three-quarters of it going to Republicans. They’ve spent more than $26 million lobbying this year – that’s seven times more than environmental groups have spent. Follow the money – it goes from your gas tank to the wine bars and steak houses of DC, where the payoffs happen. Or ponder that FISA surveillance legislation that just passed the Senate. It let the big telecommunications companies off the hook for helping the government wiretap our phones and laptops without warrants. Over the years those telecom companies have given Republicans in the House and Senate $63 million dollars and Democrats $49 million. &#160;No wonder that when their lobbyists reach out and place a call to Congress, they never get a busy signal.&#160; Do the same without making a big contribution, and you’ll be put on “hold” until the embalmer shows up to claim your cold corpse.</p>
<p>The late journalist Meg Greenfield once wrote that trying to get money out of politics is akin to the quest for a squirrel-proof birdfeeder. No matter how clever and ingenious the design, the squirrels are always one mouthful ahead of you. Here’s an example. Corporations are limited in how much they can contribute to candidate’s campaigns, right? But someone’s always figuring out how to open another back door.&#160; So Democrats have turned to Steve Farber. He’s using the resources of his big K Street law and lobbying factory to help raise $40 million for the Democratic National Convention. Half a dozen of his clients have signed up, including AT&amp;T, Comcast, Western Union and Google. Their presence at the convention will offer lots of opportunities to curry favors at private parties while ordinary delegates wander Denver looking for the nearest Wendy’s. By the way, just as you pay at the gas pump for those energy lobbyists to wine and dine your representatives in Washington, you’ll pay on April 15 for Denver –corporations can deduct their contributions.</p>
<p>Another back door – one quite familiar to Steve Farber and his ilk – leads to presidential libraries.&#160; Bill Clinton’s in Arkansas required serious political bucks, and we’re not talking penny ante fines for overdue books.</p>
<p>Again, there’s no limit to the amount a donor can give and no obligation to reveal their names. Clinton’s cost $165 million and&#160; we still don’t know the identities of&#160; everyone who put up the dough, even though four years ago a reporter stumbled on a list that included Arab businessmen, Saudi royals, Hollywood celebs and the governments of Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei and Taiwan. Hmmm…</p>
<p>Once George W. is out of the White House, he, too, plans what one newspaper described as a “legacy polishing” institute – a presidential library and think tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas costing half a billion dollars.&#160; Last Sunday, The Times of London released a remarkable video of one of the president’s buddies and fund raisers –Stephen Payne, a political appointee appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.</p>
<p>The Times set him up in a video sting, and taped a conversation in which Payne offers an exiled leader of Kyrgyzstan meetings with such White House luminaries as Vice President Cheney and Condoleezza Rice – provided he makes a whopping contribution to the Bush Library, and an even bigger payment to Payne’s lobbying firm. Payne tells him, “It will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush Library… That’s gonna be a show of ‘we’re interested, we’re your friends, we’re still your friends.’”</p>
<p>The White House denies any connection between library contributions and access to officials and harrumphed at the preposterous idea that Payne had a close relationship with the President. Unfortunately, there’s at least one photo of Payne with the President cutting brush at his Crawford ranch. There’s also one of Payne demonstrating more guts than common sense, on a rifle range with Deadeye Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>Payne, who now is supporting John McCain, says he’s done nothing wrong, but a congressional investigation intends to find out. So from the financial meltdown brought on by predatory lending to global warming to tax breaks and other favors, the late California politician Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh got it right: Money is the mother’s milk of politics.&#160; He knew what he was talking about, because Big Daddy swigged it by the gallon.&#160; Now it has curdled into a witch’s brew.</p>
<p>Bill Moyers is managing editor and Michael Winship is senior writer of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS.&#160; Check local airtimes or comment at The Moyers Blog at <a href="http://www.pbs.org/moyers" type="external">www.pbs.org/moyers</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Mother’s Milk of Politics Turns Sour | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/07/19/mother-s-milk-of-politics-turns-sour/ | 2008-07-19 | 4 |
<p>California’s effort to fight global warming may be caught on the horns of a dilemma.&#160; While the state (and especially Governor Schwarzenegger) wants to lead the nation in all things green, the matter of poor economic conditions and high unemployment has become an unexpected roadblock.</p>
<p>Big Oil is all over the problem, wishing no harm to the environment but seeking only to protect unemployed Californians by canning the entire bill.&#160; Schwarzenegger opened the door to their entreaties recently by announcing a “go slow” approach to implementation of AB 32.&#160; But Calbuzz noted in a recent <a href="http://www.calbuzz.com/2010/03/why-killing-ab32-is-a-long-shot-and-other-bad-bets/" type="external">blog</a> that Big Oil may well be underestimating the disdain of the California electorate for all things crude, and overestimating the value of short memories when it comes to such issues as the Enron debacle.&#160; As Calbuzz states, once Californians understand that oil money is backing the “no on AB32” campaign, they’ll turn “yes” in a droves.</p>
<p>Is there a definitive answer to the question of whether environmental activism is good or bad for California and the nation?</p>
<p>The left-leaning Seminal website <a href="http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/38071" type="external">reports</a> a resounding vote for “good” based on a March 29 report from the California Air Resources Board (ARB).&#160;&#160; This new report was prepared in response to criticism that ARB’s earlier positive report on AB32 was too optimistic.&#160; The just-released <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/2010/nr032410b.html" type="external">report</a> states that AB32 will actually grow California’s economy by nearly one percent annually.</p>
<p>“This analysis confirms what economists have been saying all along: that full implementation of the Scoping Plan is the right choice for California to make an affordable transition to a clean energy economy,” said ARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols in an agency news release. “It supports continued economic growth and sets us on a course for greater energy security and less dependence on petroleum.”</p>
<p>Criticism of the earlier report is summarized <a href="http://ncwatch.typepad.com/media/2010/03/global-warming-law-wont-hurt-california-economy-really.html" type="external">here</a> by the right leaning NC (Nevada Citizens) Media Watch.</p>
<p>So what’s a Californian to believe?&#160;</p>
<p>CA State Senator Fran Pavley says that many of the bill’s opponents have a case of “Chicken Littleism”, and argues that there’s more at stake if we fail to implement AB32.&#160; “It makes no sense to introduce an initiative that would halt economic development and the energy we need to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of fuel and energy,” she <a href="http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=yltbem0bsehmlv" type="external">wrote</a> for the California Weekly website.&#160; And she lists a series of statistics that show the thousands of jobs enabled by the state’s green legislation.</p>
<p>The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the legislation, but California Chamber spokeswoman Denise Davis said, “Our position is not the same as the US Chamber” in a November, 2009 Capitol Weekly <a href="http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=ye2kaf0hmgl617" type="external">article</a>.</p>
<p>AB32 is the kind of legislation that deserves plenty of attention from the California electorate, but may not receive it as long as jobs are at the top of people’s minds.&#160; Yet, it’s the connection with future jobs and the development of new green businesses that are at stake.</p>
<p>What’s your opinion?</p> | Bad economy could delay implementation of California’s global warming bill | false | https://ivn.us/2010/03/31/bad-economy-could-delay-implementation-californias-global-warming-bill/ | 2010-03-31 | 2 |
<p>&#160;When the <a href="//www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20120521,00.html" type="external">Time magazine cover for a story on attachment parenting "Are You Mom Enough?"</a> hit the web this week, the reaction ran the full range from troll-friendly to thoughtful. It's not difficult to see why this headline and design drew so much heat: without even wading into "mommy wars", compounding Americans' puritanical discomfort with the body is a <a href="//www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/05/our-complicated-relationship-breasts/52168/" type="external">cultural taboo over breast-feeding</a>. Recall, for example, the negative reaction to mother mag <a href="//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14065706/ns/health-womens_health/t/eyeful-breast-feeding-mom-sparks-outrage/" type="external">Babytalk's breastfeeding cover</a>: 25% of readers polled thought the pic was inappropriate, with some women even calling the image "gross" and shredding the edition.</p>
<p>What also makes for the perfect storm of sales-driving sensationalism: the child in question is three years old and has a model-looking mother, whom some news outlets have inevitably referred to as a "Milf" (from American Pie: "Mom I Would Like to F…").</p>
<p>Friday, the issue is set to hit newsstands nationwide. While the edition is likely to remain controversial for the obvious issues – that late-stage <a href="//www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/breastfeeding" type="external">breastfeeding</a> is/isn't weird; that child will/will not grow up well-adjusted; and (sadly) that mom pictured is/isn't hot – the cover is not problematic because it's polemic.&#160;Rather, the way it is presented distracts us from having a meaningful discussion of motherhood and sexuality, which is a discussion we need to have.</p>
<p>We get so caught up in the "weirdness" of the situation that we don't really address the bigger issue: uneasy Americans flip out whether Mamma Madonna is a goddess or a bitch, and will criticize her if she's sexed up or completely desexualized.&#160;</p>
<p>Some evidence? Let's start with <a href="//www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2011/08/demi-moore-201108" type="external">Annie Leibovitz-shot Demi Moore Vanity Fair cover</a>. <a href="//www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-vanity-fair-demi-pix,0,7906143.photo" type="external">As described by the Los Angeles Times</a>, "It was the photo that spawned all manner of celebrity mom to bare all along with their bellies, among them Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera," but "at the time, some retailers were so taken aback by the shot that they sold the issue in a brown paper bag as if it were an adult title like Playboy." Moore said she felt it gave women "permission to feel sexy, attractive when you're pregnant."&#160;</p>
<p>But the preg-celeb photo shoots that have followed over the past 20 years, such as the Jessica Simpson's Elle spread of late, suggest that women still don't have the permission to celebrate pregnancy or motherhood without charges of indecency. &#160;</p>
<p>Reactions to the frilly lingerie for lactating mothers, as detailed in a <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/fashion/nursing-bras-that-show-mothers-in-more-than-work-mode.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">New York Times' article "Nursing Bras That Show Mothers in More than Work Mode"</a> also support this.</p>
<p>There were women who felt that the traditional "matronly" models were sufficient and practical; that the post-partum period was no time to worry about unmentionables' unattractiveness.&#160;There were women who felt bogged down by the demands of motherhood, who wanted to boost their self-esteem with nursing bras and matching thongs. And then, there were women who felt that being a mother in a simple, lingerie-free way was given a bad rap; that they should be thought of as sexual beings even if they're wearing a white or flesh-toned bra – in the words of one garment maker said: "I love being a mother, but lingerie is not for a mother … It's for a woman." As <a href="//mommyish.com/stuff/the-nursing-bra-market-thinks-that-youre-sexless-and-unattractive-because-youre-a-mother-325/" type="external">Koa Beck wrote on Mommyish</a>:</p>
<p>"Apparently being a mother is not the same as being woman on the pure basis of undergarment choice. If you're not wearing a lacy push up bra or matching lingerie set, you're not a woman to the heads of these bra companies. And motherhood and a fancy balconette bra are just not compatible."</p>
<p>Adding to the confusion, of course, are the sexless shrew tropes we constantly see on network sitcoms, which send the message that moms are moody but never in the mood, à la Everybody Loves Raymond.&#160;Also among the countless, confounding examples in pop culture are the young women of Teen Mom, who sometimes seem more concerned with plastic surgery than their kids.&#160;</p>
<p>The portrayal and perception of motherhood in America is messy, to say the least.&#160;Deconstructed, here's how Time relates to all of this: the cover feels inappropriate not just because of its shock value; instead, the imagery fosters the attitude that breastfeeding is freakish per se, and it then links this notion to society's complicated, contradictory prescriptions about mothers' sexuality.&#160;</p>
<p>Some might counter that despite the overt opportunism, this is a liberating, challenging portrayal of breastfeeding. After all, the line of reasoning goes, isn't the young mother on the cover challenging stereotypes by proudly, publicly defending her choice to breastfeed – while simultaneously embodying a strongly sexual being?</p>
<p>That does not seem to be at play here, though. The Time photo shoot doesn't set out to challenge taboos so much as exploit them: because it is such an extreme, link-baity example, it prompts a gut reaction based upon what we already believe about appropriate ages for breastfeeding.</p>
<p>Because the "weirdness" element is foregrounded to the exclusion of any other considerations, the Time cover precludes a necessary public debate about the underlying theme: that mothers – be they foxy or frumpy or somewhere in between – should be free to express their sexuality as they so choose, without feeling pressured by shame or constraining stereotypes.</p> | Time's Breastfeeding Cover is Pure Shock Value, No Substance | true | http://alternet.org/story/155412/time%27s_breastfeeding_cover_is_pure_shock_value%2C_no_substance/ | 2012-05-13 | 4 |
<p>Despite United States economic weakness, although not unrelated to it, our military casts a heavy shadow everywhere on earth, far beyond the major and minor wars it is now conducting. The geographical and functional scope of the US military is cosmic. Formal alliances are an important element, but even such bloated, increasingly un-Atlantic and shockingly un-pacific institutions as NATO are only the tip of the iceberg. Nations generally regarded as “neutral” are now junior partners in NATO: Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Malta, and Sweden. “In June 2009, war games ‘Loyal Arrow’ were conducted by 10 countries in Northern Sweden, as a preliminary move to extend US and NATO military presence into Arctic regions—and confronting Russia in that area,” as reported by Rick <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&amp;aid=13975" type="external">Rozoff</a> .</p>
<p>Other affiliates are the NATO Mediterranean dialogue states: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, and guests invited to NATO events: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. Whether committed or just coffee dates, NATO nations are required to meet exacting standards. This means, in most cases, not only increased power for their military institutions, but also secret agreements that negate democracy. If our ally’s elected government &#160;is military-skeptical, prime ministers and their parliamentary supporters may be kept uninformed of the NATO arrangements, as in the case of the nuclear weapons that were stationed in Greenland in violation of the Danish Constitution. The “normalization” of NATO, its penetration into the European Union, and its effect on civilian life (East and West Europe and Central Asia) are rarely examined.</p>
<p>Another wing of the US military is training, supplied to NATO partners and the military and civilian personnel of over 150 nations. The <a href="http://www.soaw.org/" type="external">School of the Americas</a> (now Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) at Fort Benning, GA, is notorious. However, there are 200 institutions in the US that train foreign military, and many overseas. Any nation that buys US military equipment—there are about 150 such countries–gets trainers with the deal.</p>
<p>The joint exercises with our <a href="" type="internal">Special Operations Forces</a> are also “trainings” that provide mentors for foreign troops, so that we can insure “interoperability.”</p>
<p>The scope of operations blurs the distinction between military and civilian functions. Among the problems that may call for a military response, according to the 2010 <a href="" type="internal">Quadrennial Defense Review</a> are:</p>
<p>Rising demand for resources, rapid urbanization of littoral regions, the effects of climate change, the emergence of new strains of disease, and profound cultural and demographic tensions in several regions are just some of the trends whose complex interplay may spark or exacerbate future conflicts.</p>
<p>US military serves humanitarian missions everywhere, in disasters as well as routine social service needs. One of its functions, according to the QDR, is “preventing human suffering due to mass atrocities or large-scale natural disasters abroad.” It also tries to win the hearts and minds of the people by operating dental and pet care clinics. The modern missionaries discover the lay of the land, make friends with ambitious, intelligent locals, and rarely leave. All these interactions—alliances, partnerships, training, and humanitarian services– create “networking,” collegial relationships with current and future elites, both civilian and military. Then there are the bases.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts</a>, edited by Catherine Lutz (N.Y.: NYU Press, 2009) is a fitting sequel to another excellent book, <a href="" type="internal">The Sun Never Sets: Confronting the Network of Foreign U.S. Military Bases</a>, edited by Joseph Gerson and Bruce Birchard (Boston: AFSC/South End Press, 1991). Gerson and Cynthia Enloe are represented in both books.</p>
<p>Lutz is an anthropologist; many activists and anthropologists are contributors to this volume, which bodes well for information about what is really going on, in contrast to foreign policy experts who tell us mostly about elite opinion and their own ideological presuppositions. For information about the size, location, and real estate value of US military bases (domestic and foreign), one can look at the <a href="" type="internal">DOD Base Structure Report</a>. This understates the number, omitting the bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the forthcoming one in Yemen. Also not listed are foreign bases that grant access rights to the US military. The 2009 BSR claimed 4,742 bases in the US, 121 in our territories, and 716 foreign. Some have estimated the foreign bases as nearer to 1,000, and the cost for those alone at around $250 billion annually.</p>
<p>The Lutz volume describes their effect on host countries and their people, and also reports the extensive activism protesting bases, some of which has been successful. For support and inspiration, there is an <a href="http://www.no-bases.org/" type="external">International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases</a> . The current status of anti-base protests can be found on its web site. The anti-base movements have considerable leadership and participation by women, indigenous people, and racial minorities. Ironically, the US military has &#160;promoted multicultural democracy in foreign lands.</p>
<p>Lutz tells us what people don’t like about the bases. First of all, there is the sovereignty issue. Status of Forces Agreements often provide that the host countries’ criminal and environmental laws will not be applied to US personnel and bases. Secret agreements, such as those allowing for the presence of nuclear weapons, bypass parliamentary institutions, laws, and constitutions. Aside from formal provisions, a foreign military occupation confers power over the politics and society of the host. Thus the 235 bases currently in Germany are not without function. They have helped to keep the population “in line” with the “American way.” In addition, as everywhere, there is an economic stimulus to the restaurant, entertainment, and real estate industries, filling in the gaps where war and the globalization of manufacturing and agriculture have hollowed out local economies.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, another reason for unhappiness is the purpose of the installations. They are used for making war, spying on other countries, torture, and other activities that violate the host countries’ laws and the will of their people. To moral and legal concerns must be added the potential for “blowback,” as bases may be targeted by nations resentful of being attacked.</p>
<p>Locals are angry at the taking of their land, which may be rendered unfit forever for agriculture or tourism. Vicenza, Italy is a UNESCO heritage city; a second massive military base is being constructed there despite a longstanding protest movement. In all cases, the environmental consequences of base construction and operation are grave for land, sea, and air. The constant noise of overflights, artillery fire, and bombing practice is also a cause for complaint.</p>
<p>A prostitution industry and violent crimes are common followers of base installations.</p>
<p>One of the best-known and vigorous protest movement, that of Okinawa, was catalyzed by the 1995 rape of a 12 year old girl and the US refusal to surrender the suspects to local authorities. However, all of the above reasons motivated the protests. In addition, many Okinawans consider themselves a colonized population of Japan, and resent the placement of 75% of the US Japanese bases on their territory.</p>
<p>The Bases of Empire contains detailed case studies of Latin America and the Caribbean, Iraq, and Diego Garcia; US nuclear weapons bases in Europe; and protest movements in the Philippines, Okinawa, and Turkey. Furthermore, it includes anti-base activism on US territory in Hawaii and Vieques, Puerto Rico, which has served as a worldwide inspiration. The afterword, by Julian Aguon, a Chamoru (indigenous person of Guam), protests that his people are becoming extinct. Filipino and Korean workers were brought to Guam to build the bases, which are now slated for massive enlargement. In addition, Chamorus serve and die in the US armed forces at a disproportionate rate.</p>
<p>The overall picture may be bleak, yet there are signs of hope. The anti-base movements have had some successes. The US military is creating a new basing system for strategic reasons;unpopularity is also a motivator.</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">Rumsfeld</a> announced in 2004:</p>
<p>Our first notion is that our troops should be located in places where they are wanted, welcomed, and needed. In some cases, the presence and activities of our forces grate on local populations and have become an irritant for host governments. The best example is our massive headquarters in some of the most valuable downtown real estate in South Korea’s capital city, Seoul – long a sore point for many South Koreans. Under our proposed changes, that headquarters will be dramatically reduced in size and moved to a location well south of the capital.</p>
<p>Now some of the “main operating bases” with permanent structures, family housing, etc., will be closed in favor of <a href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=25214" type="external">“forward operating sites”</a> and “cooperative security locations,” often maintained by contractors to shield the principals from the gaze of the locals.</p>
<p>After many years of protest, spurred by prostitution and ensuing disease as well as the constitutional ban on nuclear weapons, the Philippines bases were closed. This success is somewhat countered by joint military exercises, ship visits, and Special Forces operations, but the activism has not ceased.</p>
<p>Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa refused to extend the contract for the base at Manta, and it is closing. A major <a href="" type="internal">movement</a> demands the end to all US bases in Latin America and the Caribbean, and deplores the US quest for new bases in Colombia. Although the Honduran request for the closure of the US base at Palmerola was not a success, it was a serious enough threat to trigger the overthrow squad. In Vieques, Puerto Rico, which was bombed for 180 days in a year, the protest began with environmental and health concerns, and was reinforced in 1999 when a security guard was killed by a stray bomb. Worldwide solidarity activists aided in the base closure, and the international <a href="http://www.no-bases.org/" type="external">movement</a> continues today.</p>
<p>The environmental and political consequences of bases within the US are also worthy of investigation, yet one rarely sees comprehensive studies by journalists, social scientists, or activists. Political science and environmental studies textbooks mostly ignore them. At the very least, they represent another system of local government. The Military Toxics Project, which expressed serious concerns of military families and civilian base workers, has ceased for lack of funds. We are indebted to Catherine Lutz for authoring an earlier book on the impact of a domestic base: Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), a study of Fayetteville, NC, home of Fort Bragg. Her introduction asserts: “In an important sense, though, we all inhabit an army camp, mobilized to lend support to the permanent state of war readiness that has been with us since World War II.”</p>
<p>JOAN ROELOFS is Professor Emerita of Political Science, Keene State College, New Hampshire. She is the translator of Victor Considerant’s <a href="" type="internal">Principles of Socialism</a> (Maisonneuve Press, 2006), and author of <a href="" type="internal">Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism</a> (SUNY Press, 2003) and <a href="" type="internal">Greening Cities</a> (Apex-Bootstrap Press, 1996). On <a href="http://www.joanroelofs.wordpress.com" type="external">her site</a> is the outline of an adult education course on “The Military-Industrial Complex,” with images, citations, and links. Contact: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Bases of Empire | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/02/19/bases-of-empire/ | 2010-02-19 | 4 |
<p>Former Obama Economic Advisor Austan Goolsbee on the Fed and economic growth.</p>
<p>Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said on Friday that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) expects the U.S. economy to continue its moderate growth and foresees inflation rising to 2% over the next few years.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"While economic growth has not been rapid, it has been sufficient to generate further improvement in the labor market,” <a href="" type="internal">Yellen said in a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming</a>.</p>
<p>Former Obama economic advisor Austan Goolsbee told FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney that the Fed’s mistakes in its rate increase forecast thus far, along with incoming economic data, may cause Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to see a boost in the polls.</p>
<p>“Everyone knows the Fed has been making mistakes, mistakes in its forecast, mistakes in predicting ah we are going to raise the rates – [they’ve said] we are going to be able to raise the rates by the end of this year, by the end of next year, by the end of the year after that,” Goolsbee said.</p>
<p>Goolsbee also said the Fed consistently continues to predict rate hikes despite the economy not being strong enough for such rate hikes to be implemented.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“That’s what the Fed has been saying for six, seven straight years; that we get modest growth numbers and then they say, ‘ah we are about to blow the doors off, we are about to raise rates,’ and then they are never able to do that because the economy is not strong enough,” he said.</p> | Goolsbee: FOMC Mistakes May Give Trump a Boost | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/08/26/goolsbee-fomc-mistakes-may-give-trump-boost.html | 2016-08-26 | 0 |
<p>FBN’s Rich Edson breaks down the latest report from the Labor Department.</p>
<p>The most troubling aspect of the August jobs report released earlier Friday could well be the revelation that 368,000 potential employees simply gave up looking for work.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Put into perspective, the number of people who decided last month that there’s no point even looking for a job was nearly four times larger than the 96,000 people who actually found jobs.</p>
<p>“That’s a large number. That’s the biggest story for this month,” said Cliff Waldman, an economist for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), a public policy and economics research organization in Arlington, Va. “It shows there’s a very, very sizable level of frustration among the labor force and it’s a very disturbing trend."</p>
<p>Ironically, removing such a large number of people from the workforce helped push the U.S. unemployment rate down to 8.1% from 8.3% in July, but no one is interpreting that as good news.</p>
<p>The Labor Department, which compiles and releases unemployment figures, didn’t indicate how many of that 368,000 figure were regarded as long-term unemployed, which the government defines as those out of work for 27 weeks or more. But it’s a safe bet a significant number of them were.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The number of long-term unemployed in the U.S., those who haven’t been able to find steady work for over six months, held steady from July into August at a whopping five million people. In all, 12.5 million people were out of work in the U.S. last month.</p>
<p>The government also reported Friday that the labor force participation rate came in at 63.5%, the lowest figure since September of 1981.</p>
<p>Skittish Would-be Entrepreneurs Curbing Hiring</p>
<p>Waldman said reams of economic data show that a significant number of would-be entrepreneurs, frightened by fragile financial markets and uncertain about the direction of U.S. economic policy, are holding off on their plans to start their own businesses.</p>
<p>If those businesses aren’t opened there’s no need to hire new employees.</p>
<p>“Most new jobs come from new businesses,” said Waldman. “That’s not happening and it’s especially disturbing because there are so many people on the sidelines wondering what to do.”</p>
<p>Usually, when unemployment rises, by necessity it creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to go out and start their own businesses. Rather than sitting on their couches waiting for their next unemployment check, historically many Americans will instead look for a way to make money on their own. When they succeed they hire more people to help them.</p>
<p>But, increasingly, that’s not happening now. “We should be seeing a lot more of this but we’re not,” said Waldman.</p>
<p>Blame it on the deep level of frustration and uncertainty that pervades U.S. labor markets right now. Frustration because U.S. tax policy doesn’t encourage entrepreneurs, and uncertainty because of the looming "fiscal cliff" come January if Congress can’t reach an agreement on debt reduction, government spending and tax policy.</p>
<p>Waldman said tax-policy reform needs to focus on making it easier for entrepreneurs to get up and running so they can expand and hire. “Entrepreneurship should be very much a part of current economic policy,” he said.</p>
<p>Another factor holding back hiring is employer uncertainty tied to dramatic budget cuts and tax increases scheduled to take affect early next year if Congress and the president fail to reach an agreement on a compromise.</p>
<p>If no compromise is reached and billions of dollars are slashed across-the-board from the U.S. budget at the same time taxes go up for millions of Americans, the impact could be devastating.</p>
<p>“If that happens there will be a recession in 2013, and not a small one,” said Waldman.</p>
<p>Hardly surprising then that would-be entrepreneurs are reluctant to put their life savings on the line right now in an effort to start a new business.</p> | Jobs Report: 368,000 Americans Gave Up Hope | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/09/07/job-report-many-americans-giving-up-hope.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian lays the blame for the current “mess” in the Middle East squarely at the feet of the Bush administration.</p>
<p />
<p>…It’s fashionable to blame the US for all the world’s ills, but in this case the sins, both of omission and commission, of the Bush administration genuinely belong at the heart of the trouble.</p>
<p>Diplomacy has had a difficult task from the start, in part because the US is not seen as an honest broker, but as too closely aligned with Israel. Washington has long been pro-Israel, but under President Clinton and the first President Bush there was an effort to be seen as a plausible mediator. Not under George W. Far from keeping lines of communication open with Hizbullah’s two key patrons – Syria and Iran – they have been cast into outer darkness, branded as spokes, or satellites, of the axis of evil. As a result there has been no mechanism to restrain Hizbullah. Now, when the US needs Syria’s help, it may be too late. Damascus will extract a high price, no doubt demanding the right to re-enter, in some form, Lebanon. The White House can’t grant that – not when it considers Syria’s ejection from Lebanon in 2005 one of its few foreign-policy successes.</p>
<p />
<p>But the record of failure goes deeper than that. It began in the president’s first week, when Bush decided he would not repeat what he perceived as his predecessor’s mistake by allowing his presidency to be mired in the fruitless search for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Even though Clinton had got tantalisingly close, Bush decided to drop it. While Henry Kissinger once racked up 24,230 miles in just 34 days of shuttle diplomacy, Bush’s envoys have been sparing in their visits to the region.</p>
<p>The result is that the core conflict has been allowed to fester. Had it been solved, or even if there had been a serious effort to solve it, the current crisis would have been unimaginable. Instead, Bush’s animating idea has been that the peoples of the Middle East can be bombed into democracy and terrorised into moderation. It has proved one of the great lethal mistakes of his abominable presidency – and the peoples of Israel and Lebanon are paying the price.</p>
<p>Read the full article <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,,1830177,00.html?gusrc=rss" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | Bush Administration’s “Lethal Mistakes” at the Heart of the Middle East Crisis | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/07/bush-administrations-lethal-mistakes-heart-middle-east-crisis/ | 2006-07-26 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Jinja Bar &amp; Bistro in Santa Fe includes a mural, shown here, by actor Gene Hackman. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Jinja, a pleasant, classy spot for cocktails, lunch or dinner, started charming its Santa Fe customers more than 10 years ago, then opened two locations in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Situated on the north side of town across from the National Cemetery, Jinja has become a Santa Fe mainstay for Asian food. You might have to wait for a table here on a busy night and the quiet, subtly lit bar offers the perfect place to relax while your place is prepared. (People also can eat at the bar or at a booth in the bar room.)</p>
<p>Not hungry enough for a full meal? Why not make a meal out of the appetizers here, as friends and I did recently when we came to celebrate a birthday? There’s much to choose from and everything I’ve sampled is good or even better than that.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Imperial Lettuce Wraps, for example, deserve the adjective. The crisp, cool cups of iceberg lettuce are laden with a tasty warm mixture of ground chicken, a bit of ham, minced mushrooms and other ingredients. Make this finger food even better with a bit of the sweet and spicy dipping sauce served with it.</p>
<p>We also loved the tempura avocado, wedges of soft, ripe avocado coated in a light batter and fried until crisp. The contrast between the batter and what’s inside was great.</p>
<p>We shared and savored the Vietnamese spring rolls. This version differs from the traditional Chinese egg rolls in several delicious respects. The rolls themselves, served crisp and hot, are small, about the size and color of a cigar.</p>
<p>They come with a pile of fresh lettuce leaves and dipping sauce. To eat, wrap the roll in the lettuce and then dip in the sauce. Very tasty.</p>
<p />
<p>Jinja’s calamari is excellent, some of the best in Santa Fe. The heaping plate of rings and tentacles, lightly breaded and fresh from the kitchen, comes with a yummy citrus and mint dipping sauce, slightly sweet, slightly tangy and definitely worth eating.</p>
<p>I also recommend the potstickers – small, pork-filled dumplings served with their own dipping sauce. They make a good starter for those who want to move on to the entrees.</p>
<p>My favorite way to eat at Jinja is to graze on the appetizers and then perhaps share a bowl of the Malay coconut soup with its tender shrimp or the chicken soup with big udon noodles and plenty of vegetables.</p>
<p>Although included on the appetizer menu, the ahi tempura roll could be meal in itself for a person who doesn’t want to share.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Although all the dishes here looked good, the roll was especially well presented. I loved the pink of the tuna inside the rice and black sesame seed coating.</p>
<p>This, by the way, is the closest Jinja gets to sushi. If you crave raw fish, you will have to go elsewhere. But that’s about the only category of food that isn’t represented in this pan-Asian restaurant.</p>
<p>Many entrees are available in small or large portions. The large is sharable size; the small a good meal for one.</p>
<p>I especially like the Shaking Beef, thin slices of tenderloin stir fried with fresh spinach. The menu features a couple of curries, pad Thai, Teriyaki chicken and Chinese options, such as sweet and sour, kung pao and orange peel presentations. You have the option of four noodle-based dishes.</p>
<p>I’ve heard criticism that Jinja is Americanized Asian food but, in my mind, that’s not a bad thing. The dishes are delicious, freshly made and beautifully served. I can’t think of anything to complain about.</p>
<p>As dessert, I recommend the chocolate silk cake, served warm with a molten chocolate center and a scoop of ice cream. They use good chocolate in this version of the classic lava cake, rich, dark and not too sweet.</p>
<p>The two other things I enjoy about eating at Jinja are the ambiance and the service. The restaurant, decorated mostly in black, red and gold, feels like an elegant version of the Hollywood Asia of the 1950s. Booths allow for private conversations; tables can accommodate larger groups.</p>
<p>The front sunroom is perfect for lunch. I have eaten here off and on for years and never had arrogant or unfriendly service. Some servers are more efficient than others, but all of them know how to make customers feel like guests.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Good ol’ Jinja still among the best for Asian dining | false | https://abqjournal.com/446212/good-ol-jinja-still-among-the-best-for-asian-dining.html | 2 |
|
<p>Photo by Ted Grudzinski / AMA.</p>
<p />
<p>As a rule, people don’t boo Barack Obama, the first rock star president. But on Monday, that’s exactly what happened. On a charm offensive in support of his health care reform efforts, Obama addressed the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest physician lobby. The doctors in the audience booed him for revealing that he didn’t support the group’s pet cause—caps on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Nonetheless, he did win some applause by adopting the doctors’ language and referring to the “defensive medicine” that is supposedly driving up health care costs.</p>
<p>In a carefully parsed speech, he said, “Some doctors may feel the need to order more tests and treatments to avoid being legally vulnerable. That’s a real issue. And while I’m not advocating caps on malpractice awards which I believe can be unfair to people who’ve been wrongfully harmed, I do think we need to explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines. That’s how we can scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care.”</p>
<p>It was a cagey move. In throwing the docs a bone, Obama embraced one of their most cherished arguments: that “defensive medicine” is driving up health care costs. But this bone doesn’t have much meat on it. Defensive medicine is doctors’ favorite anti-lawsuit argument. It goes something like this: The mere threat of malpractice lawsuits drives physicians to overprescribe expensive tests and procedures, ergo, making it harder for malpractice victims to sue would bring down health care costs.&#160;</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at this issue for years, as have <a href="http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-836" type="external">many government agencies</a>. Like them, I’ve basically concluded that defensive medicine is a myth. Think of it this way: How many Americans are really out there complaining that they’ve received too much health care? More common are stories like this one about a case that went to the Texas Supreme Court in 2007. The plaintiff, Sharon Boyd, 57, made four different visits over 16 months to three different doctors, complaining of rectal bleeding and constipation. Not one of them ordered a single diagnostic test, not even a colonoscopy, which is recommended for everyone over 50, bleeding or not. Finally, three years after her initial complaints, Boyd demanded a colonoscopy. Turns out she had stage 4 colon cancer. She died not long after finding a lawyer.</p>
<p>There are whole legal practices devoted to little but litigating missed cancer diagnoses like these. Reading their files is a harrowing experience. Most people are lucky to get their insurance to pay for a routine trip to the doctor, much less a battery of unnecessary tests. As the <a href="http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:sw8cZUq9xjAJ:www.gao.gov/new.items/d08452.pdf+GAO+medicare+imaging+costs&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us&amp;client=firefox-a" type="external">Government Accountability Office and others have pointed out</a>, doctors usually order unnecessary tests only when they can benefit financially. That’s one reason Medicare spending on imaging services like MRIs and CT scans doubled between 2000 and 2006, according to the GAO.</p>
<p>Obama must know all this. His embrace of “defensive medicine” suggests he really wants the AMA to get on board with his reform plans. Still, no amount of bone-throwing is likely to persuade the AMA to support meaningful health care reform. Hillary Clinton tried this same anti-lawsuit gambit back in the early 1990s and we all know how well that worked out.&#160; Obama’s situation is probably even more hopeless because he’s making promises that the AMA must know he can’t keep. Here’s why: As a constitutional law professor, Obama knows well that most of the legal measures doctors support to reduce “defensive medicine,” including the much vaunted <a href="http://www.legalaffairs.org/webexclusive/debateclub_medmal0305.msp" type="external">“health court” proposals</a>, are fundamentally unconstitutional. They tend to violate people’s Seventh Amendment rights to a jury trial, among other things. Moreover, with Democrats running the House and Senate, restrictions on medical malpractice lawsuits are most likely dead on arrival.</p>
<p>It’s not just trial lawyer money that will doom the effort. Trial lawyers don’t have nearly as much money as doctors and insurance companies, for one thing. But also, there are some powerful lawyers in Congress who will put up a big fight on this one on principle. Among them: Republican senator and onetime trial lawyer Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, who voted against malpractice reform bills in 2003 and 2004. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), another former trial lawyer, has also been a reliable opponent of lawsuit restrictions. Obama’s own vice president might pose the biggest obstacle to any attempt to limit malpractice suits. Joe Biden was a trial lawyer himself (as is his brother and son, Beau), and the biggest donors during his political career have been fellow plaintiff attorneys. Biden has never once supported a tort reform bill in Congress; it seems unlikely he would start supporting such proposals now.</p>
<p>Even if Obama could surmount the opposition in his own party to push through some sort of legal protections for bad doctors, it’s still extremely unlikely that he’ll win over the AMA. The group is one of the nation’s most retrograde political institutions. As <a href="" type="internal">Kevin Drum has pointed</a> out, the AMA adamantly opposed the creation of the same Medicare system they now argue should pay doctors more money. In the 1930s, the AMA tried to ban its members from working in fledgling HMOs created during the Depression to try to provide health care to the legions of unemployed. The organization ended up convicted of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.&#160;</p>
<p>The AMA has locked arms with such lobbies as the tobacco industry, earning large sums for running cigarette ads in its prestigious medical journal for decades. During the malpractice insurance “crisis” of the early 2000s, the AMA provided political cover to poorly managed insurance companies that lost millions in the stock market on Enron and other investments and then tried to make up the difference by jacking up doctors’ malpractice premiums. The AMA lobbied for lawsuit restrictions that generally do little for doctors but much for the bottom lines of insurance companies. In 2003, <a href="http://www.intrepidresources.com/html/djp1.html" type="external">Donald Palmisano</a>, the president-elect of the AMA who encouraged President George W. Bush to “get out the grassroots” to pass restrictions on lawsuits, was actually the founder of a malpractice insurance company and on the board of another big malpractice insurer.</p>
<p>Obama’s attempt to woo these people by embracing one of their bogus arguments seems a bit pointless. The AMA may be the loudest voice of the medical profession, but it doesn’t represent most doctors. Recent estimates suggest that only 15 percent of the nation’s practicing doctors are even members of the group, down significantly from where it was during the last big health care fight. Not only do its members rely on Medicare for income, but a large percentage of them are also old enough to be covered by it. In the end, the AMA doctors may come to regret booing the most popular president in recent memory. It could be that Obama can reform health care without them.&#160;</p>
<p /> | Doctors Boo Obama | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/06/doctors-boo-obama/ | 2009-06-17 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — General Dynamics Information Technology in Las Cruces is adding 20,000 square feet to its existing facility and creating another 200 jobs, Gov. Susana Martinez’s office announced Monday.</p>
<p>The company is recruiting immediately to fill more than 200 full-time back-office support representative positions ranging from entry-level to management.</p>
<p>Candidates are encouraged to apply online via the General Dynamics Information Technology website at <a href="http://www.gdit.com/jobsearch" type="external">gdit.com/jobsearch</a>, where they will find positions by selecting “New Mexico” in the location menu.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | General Dynamics adding 200 jobs | false | https://abqjournal.com/312674/general-dynamics-adding-200-jobs.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Goran Kosanovic/For the Washington PostA Caribbean Breeze replaces the citrus in a classic hot toddy with hibiscus tea, which is tart, floral and a deep, cheery red. You can use Tazo brand Passion Tea (a blend of hibiscus and other botanicals), or any other hibiscus tea.</p>
<p>It’s January, and all around me in the warren of cubicles, I can hear the human groundhogs wheezing. Sneeze. Hack, hack, hack. Sniffle, sniffle.</p>
<p>I try to keep my head down, out of the germ jet stream. I think of the bottle of hand sanitizer I keep in a drawer, a prank one from a puckish colleague, with a label that reads: “Take a sick day, [expletive].” I fantasize about sending it around via the internal mail system.</p>
<p>Also, I think about hot toddies, which for centuries have served as a home remedy for the winter crud.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The source of the toddy’s name is arguable; some think it came from Anglicizing the Indian “tari,” a fermented palm wine. But an 1871 article in the New York Times argues no: The “toddy” is so named for Tod’s Well, which once supplied water to much of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, whose inhabitants are no strangers to the art of mixing whisky and water.</p>
<p>Like most classic quaffs, the toddy has crashed into the craft cocktail movement, so now, beyond many excellent traditional versions, you can find the toddy template being executed with spirits from aquavit to slivovitz to mescal, and all sorts of citrus and sweeteners. I’m personally a big fan of using teas in toddies, which add new flavors to the palette; in the case of the Caribbean Breeze Toddy, tart hibiscus tea stands in for lemon juice.</p>
<p>But the classic toddy is as simple as a spec gets: a couple of ounces of spirit topped with boiling water, a spoonful of honey, a wheel of citrus and a bit of spice. The better variations of the classic – which you should make when you’re healthy and just trying to warm up – lean on good aged spirits. I’m talking overproof, funky aged rums; brandies with oomph; feisty, smoky Islay whiskies; any spirits that get mellowed out by the toddy’s softening haze of honey, lemon and steam.</p>
<p>But as comforting as a toddy may be, the notion of a dose of booze as a cold cure has always struck me as a load of hooey. While lemon and honey have some cold-alleviating properties, alcohol is a dehydrator, which is not good for you.</p>
<p>I speculate that any curative value of the booze is mostly about adding enough to put you temporarily out of your misery. Beyond that, you might as well just stick to hot tea, honey and lemon – unless you’re looking not for a cure, but simply for a good, warming winter drink.</p>
<p>ALPINE TODDY</p>
<p>1 serving</p>
<p>2 dashes orange bitters</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>½ ounce fresh lemon juice</p>
<p>1 ounce yellow Chartreuse liqueur</p>
<p>An Alpine Toddy blends the milder, sweeter yellow variation of Chartreuse liqueur with citrus and chamomile tea.</p>
<p>1 chamomile tea bag or sachet</p>
<p>4 to 5 ounces boiling water</p>
<p>Lemon wheel pierced with whole cloves, for garnish</p>
<p>Combine the bitters, lemon juice and Chartreuse in a teacup or small mug. Add the tea bag, then pour in the boiling water. Let the drink steep for 4 to 5 minutes, then discard the tea bag. Add the clove-studded lemon wheel and serve.</p>
<p>PER SERVING: 110 calories, 0 g protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 11 g sugar</p>
<p>CARIBBEAN BREEZE TODDY</p>
<p>1 serving</p>
<p>3 dashes Angostura bitters</p>
<p>¾ ounce dark rum, such as Plantation</p>
<p>¾ ounce ginger liqueur</p>
<p>1 hibiscus tea bag or sachet</p>
<p>4 to 5 ounces boiling water</p>
<p>Lemon wheel pierced with whole cloves, for garnish</p>
<p>Combine the bitters, rum and ginger liqueur in a teacup or small mug. Add the tea bag, then pour in the boiling water. Let the drink steep for 4 to 5 minutes, then discard the tea bag. Add the clove-studded lemon wheel and serve.</p>
<p>PER SERVING: 130 calories, 0 g protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 8 g sugar</p>
<p /> | Hot toddy warms the heart | false | https://abqjournal.com/1120096/spirits-3.html | 2 |
|
<p>George Zimmerman, famous for the self-defense killing of Trayvon Martin, put the 9mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol used in the shooting up for auction with a starting bid of $5,000.</p>
<p>Initially Zimmerman put the auction on GunBroker.com but after they decided they didn't want his business, United Gun Group offered to host the sale on their site: <a href="http://unitedgungroup.com/auction/detail/auction/9/slug/george-zimmerman-s-gun-used-2-26-12#!prettyPhoto[gallery2]/2/" type="external">HERE</a>.</p>
<p>With a starting bid of $5,000 dollars, the <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/450fcd0adf3b495fb69c4b70cd1c677f/million-dollar-bids-shown-gun-killed-trayvon-martin" type="external">Associated Press</a> reported that, "bidding on the gun has swelled past a whopping $65 million as of Friday morning. However, the account for the leading bidder — dubbed “Racist McShootface” — has since been deleted. So too have other bidding accounts with obviously fake names like “Weedlord Bonerhitler” and “Stonewall McCracker.” As fast as United Gun Group can identify and remove the fake accounts and bids, however, the auction’s trolls keep registering new accounts and new bids."</p>
<p>In the description on the auction page, Zimmerman writes:</p>
<p>"Prospective bidders,</p>
<p>I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon. The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012. The gun is a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm. It has recently been returned to me by the Department of Justice. The pistol currently has the case number written on it in silver permanent marker. Many have expressed interest in owning and displaying the firearm including The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. This is a piece of American History. It has been featured in several publications and in current University text books. Offers to purchase the Firearm have been received; however, the offers were to use the gun in a fashion I did not feel comfortable with. The firearm is fully functional as the attempts by the Department of Justice on behalf of B. Hussein Obama to render the firearm inoperable were thwarted by my phenomenal Defense Attorney. I recognize the purchaser's ownership and right to do with the firearm as they wish. The purchaser is guaranteed validity and authenticity of the firearm. On this day, 5/11/2016 exactly one year after the shooting attempt to end my life by BLM sympathizer Matthew Apperson I am proud to announce that a portion of the proceeds will be used to: fight BLM violence against Law Enforcement officers, ensure the demise of Angela Correy's persecution career and Hillary Clinton's anti-firearm rhetoric. Now is your opportunity to own a piece of American History. Good Luck.</p>
<p>Your friend, George M. Zimmerman</p>
<p>~Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum~"</p>
<p>Zimmerman's signoff is Latin for, "If you want peace, prepare for war".</p>
<p />
<p>Exit thought from Bill Whittle on the shooting...</p> | Zimmerman’s Gun Auction Skyrockets To $65 Million With The Help Of 'Racist McShootface’ And 'Weedlord Bonerhitler' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5733/zimmermans-gun-auction-skyrockets-65-million-help-chase-stephens | 2016-05-13 | 0 |
<p>Gold touches almost one-year high</p>
<p>U.S. stock benchmarks on Tuesday staged a recovery from heavy selling earlier in the session, that came after a North Korean missile test over Japanese airspace rattled investors and sent Wall Street trawling for assets perceived as safe.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 23 points, or 0.1%, higher at 21,831. Blue chips had been off by as much as 135 points or 0.6% at its intraday nadir, with a rise in Boeing Co. (BA) and United Technologies Corp. (UTX) helping to power a mini rally.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index was little changed, down less than a point, at 2,444. The broad-market gauge had been down by about 16 points or 0.7% at its lows.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13 points, or 0.2%, to 6,295.</p>
<p>U.S. equity futures sold off late Monday, after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan, seen as another direct provocation that could destabilize the region (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/north-koreas-outrageous-missile-launch-over-japan-inflames-tensions-again-2017-08-29).</p>
<p>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the missile test an "unprecedented, grave and serious threat that seriously damages peace and security in the region." U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said the U.S. would react with "fire and fury" if Pyongyang stepped up threats against the U.S. and its allies. On Tuesday morning, he said that "all options are on the table" (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-all-options-are-on-the-table-after-north-korea-missile-test-2017-08-29) following the North Korean missile launch.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Some traders told MarketWatch that the "measured" statement by Trump and the rest of the global community so far has provided a modicum of comfort to investors. "The response around the world, it was measured as of now and I think it was probably helpful to the market," said Mark Kepner, managing director of sales and trading at Themis Trading.</p>
<p>Kepner said the market wasn't being dismissive of the latest military threat out of Pyongyang but said seasonally low volumes for the summer also make equity benchmarks more prone to swings.</p>
<p>"North Korea is drawing another line in the sand, a little further out than the last line. This has real psychological ramifications for the markets; this might not end in a pretty fashion. However, it doesn't seem like there is panic selling going on, which is a good thing," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group.</p>
<p>The volatile trading action comes at a time when major U.S. stock-market indexes are solidly higher for the year, and trading near record levels. The S&amp;P is up more than 9% in 2017, and is within 2 percentage points of all-time highs. Beyond geopolitical concerns, investors have also been worried about Wall Street valuations.</p>
<p>Read: Overseas stocks are still where the bargains are for U.S. investors (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/overseas-stocks-are-still-where-the-bargains-are-for-us-investors-2017-08-24)</p>
<p>"Valuation is rarely the only factor behind a market selloff, but it can exacerbate a market downturn when other factors are present," Ghriskey said. "We're not concerned about the market at these levels, but the Korea situation could get out of hand, which is the last thing anyone wants from a human or a market perspective."</p>
<p>Gold futures jumped $10.20, or 0.8%, to around $1,325 an ounce, trading around the highest level since September. In other haven trading, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes fell 5 basis points to 2.11%.</p>
<p>See also: Gold's 2016 peak now looks easy to reach after the metal's big breakout (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/golds-2016-peak-now-looks-easy-to-reach-after-the-metals-big-breakout-2017-08-29)</p>
<p>Stocks in Europe and Asia were also hit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-markets-jolted-by-north-korean-missile-test-over-japan-2017-08-28), with most benchmarks mired in red. Stocks in Europe suffered the biggest fall (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dax-suffers-as-european-stocks-slide-to-6-month-low-on-north-korea-spurred-selloff-2017-08-29), with the Stoxx Europe 600 index down 1.3%.</p>
<p>The CBOE VIX Volatility index had jumped 16%, or less than two points, hitting 13.21. But has since pared those gains and trades at 11.95.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the ICE Dollar Index slid 0.4% to 91.88, near its lowest since January 2015 (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-dives-to-lowest-since-early-2015-rattled-by-north-korea-missile-launch-2017-08-29). The greenback fell to Yen108.70, compared with Yen109.26 late Monday in New York.</p>
<p>The dollar was trading flat but still holding near under uncertainty of how the devastating Hurricane Harvey that rampaged Texas over the weekend will hit the U.S. economy and impact the Federal Reserve rate decisions. The storm system is expected to make landfall again this week (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/harvey-set-to-pummel-flooded-houston-once-again-2017-08-29) and to add another 20 inches of rain for an total of 50 inches.</p>
<p>Insurance companies were hurt by the storm, the full extent to the damage of which remains unknown. The SPDR S&amp;P Insurance ETF(KIE) fell 0.6% while the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF (IAK) was off 0.5%. The PowerShares KBW Property &amp; Casualty Insurance Portfolio (KBWP) was trading 0.3% lower on the day, but all three are down more than 1% thus far this week.</p>
<p>ReadCaroline Baum: No, hurricanes aren't good for the economy (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/no-hurricanes-are-not-good-for-the-economy-2017-08-28)</p>
<p>And see:Hurricane Harvey highlights biggest impact of shale-oil revolution (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-markets-harvey-reaction-a-product-of-shale-revolution-2017-08-28)</p>
<p>Gas prices declined on Tuesday, with the October contract down 0.8% to $1.56 a gallon. Crude oil prices fell 0.4% to $46.52 a barrel.</p>
<p>Stock movers: Shares of oil refiners were among biggest movers on Tuesday, with shares volatile following the fallout from Harvey. The storm is estimated to have reduced refining capacity along the Texas Gulf Coast by more than 2 million barrels a day, which could help to lift fuel margins and benefit refiners.</p>
<p>Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corp.(MPC) were down 2.1%, and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.(APC) lost 1.4%. The overall energy sector (XLE) was 0.2% lower as one of the biggest decliners of the day.</p>
<p>Acorda Therapeutics Inc.(ACOR) plunged 26% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the company's application (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/acorda-therapeutics-shares-crater-24-premarket-after-fda-rejects-application-for-parkinsons-treatment-2017-08-29) for a drug to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.</p>
<p>J. Jill Inc. (JILL) tumbled 15.2% after it reported its second-quarter results and gave an outlook (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jjill-shares-fall-10-premarket-2017-08-29), the midpoint of which was below analyst consensus expectations.</p>
<p>Shares of Finish Line Inc. (FINL) tumbled by 20% after the athletics-wear company late Monday issued a profit warning (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/finish-line-slashes-forecast-adopts-poison-pill-2017-08-28) and approved a plan aimed at blocking any individual stockholder from owning more than 12.5% of the shares outstanding.</p>
<p>Best Buy Co Inc.(BBY) sank 12% despite reporting earnings that beat forecasts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/best-buy-shares-gain-5-after-companys-fiscal-q2-earnings-hit-above-wall-street-expectations-2017-08-29).</p>
<p>Economic news:The S&amp;P/Case-Shiller 20-city index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-price-gains-were-hot-in-june-as-seattle-sizzled-case-shiller-says-2017-08-29) rose a seasonally adjusted 5.7% in the three-month period ending in June, compared with a year ago, the same rate of change as in May.</p>
<p>Consumers confidence strengthened in August (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consumer-confidence-strengthens-in-august-2017-08-29), and remains just below a 16-year high. The modest recovery in stocks followed the release of the data.</p>
<p>There were no Federal Reserve speakers on the docket for Tuesday.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 29, 2017 14:15 ET (18:15 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stock Market Attempts To Shake Off Political Tension In Volatile Trade | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/29/market-snapshot-stock-market-attempts-to-shake-off-political-tension-in-volatile-trade0.html | 2017-08-29 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Ed Kilgore of <a href="http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/strategist/2008/02/when_does_momentum_stop_matter.php" type="external">Democratic Strategist</a> has an interesting point about delegates—they may <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/02/7080_a_primer_on_the.html" type="external">determine the actual winner of the Democratic nomination</a>, but they aren’t necessarily what the media will look to tomorrow night. In fact, the media can judge success in a number of different ways:</p>
<p>One of the more interesting variables going into tomorrow’s Super Tuesday events on the Democratic side is how the chattering classes choose to measure victory, and of equal importance, how they contextualize the results in terms of the nomination contest.</p>
<p>On the first issue, “victory” could be measured by total delegates won, by the percentage of state contests won, or by performance against expectations. The sheer number and highly variable size of the states and territories participating in Super Tuesday probably makes the second measurement unlikely. The first measurement makes the most sense, but as we learned in Nevada, it isn’t that easy to assess delegate totals in time to come spilling out of the mouths of television talking heads or the keyboards of print reporters trying to meet an evening deadline.</p>
<p>As for expectations measurements, which political observers love like a wino loves zinfadel-in-a-box, it’s all gotten a bit complicated in the last few days. A week ago, HRC looked likely to win a large majority of the contests, especially in the big states not named Illiinois, and many of them by double-digit margins; this expectation nicely set up Obama to “win” on Super Tuesday by picking off an unexpectated state or two, or come close enough to win nearly half the delegates in mega-states like CA. Now that Obama’s had a well-publicized surge in the national and state polls, along with a bunch of newspaper and celebrity endorsements, he runs some risk of failing to meet expectations if he loses the big contests by any margin.</p>
<p>And then there’s the fact that California likely won’t finish counting its ballots until the day after. Not only will the media not know which metric to use to measure success; it likely won’t have all the information it needs either. Get ready for a very frantic Situation Room tomorrow night.</p>
<p /> | How Will the Media Measure Victory Tomorrow? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/how-will-media-measure-victory-tomorrow/ | 2008-02-04 | 4 |
<p>The biggest surprise to come out of the first round of France’s presidential election is that there was no surprise. The polls were right: The runoff will feature centrist and political newcomer Emmanuel Macron up against populist leader Marine Le Pen.</p>
<p>But what matters more for the future of France is who isn’t in the runoff. The candidates of the Socialist Party and the Republican Party, the two parties that have governed France in some form or another, were booted from contention, a historic first. French politics is reconfiguring itself alongside a new fault line; in the country that invented the concept of the left/right divide, the left/right divide is passé. It has been replaced by the top/bottom divide.</p>
<p>In France, as in every other major Western country to some extent, the changes brought about by globalization, technological advancement, and sexual liberalization have tended to split society along class lines, with the winners of globalization detaching themselves from the rest of society even as the losers sink further. And as in most of those countries, both main parties have both a working class and an elite constituency.</p>
<p>Emmanuel Macron is without a doubt the candidate of the French elite. He is a member of one of the most rarefied crops of French technocrats, an inspecteur général des finances, the cream of the crop of graduates from ÉNA, France’s civil service school whose graduates dominate politics and industry. In between his work in the French Ministry of Finance and his work advising President Hollande on economic policy, he did a stint in investment banking, becoming a millionaire in the process.</p>
<p>Macron was the only unapologetically pro-EU candidate in a country that dislikes the EU but whose elite believe the nation-state is to be transcended. His economic policy is vintage neoliberalism, thoroughly pro-trade, removing some regulations on business (though not too many) while trimming the sails of the welfare state (but not too much), and his agenda is a hodge-podge of small-bore technocratic initiatives. He has praised Angela Merkel’s decision to open Europe’s gates to millions of migrants, and was virtually endorsed by the German government for his promises to hold down France’s deficit. He caused controversy by once stating that “there is no such thing as French culture” (he meant that French culture is a mosaic of various cultures).</p>
<p>His opportunistic, mushy centrism is nearly comical: His habit during a presidential debate of starting every rejoinder by noting the opponent’s points he agreed with became a meme (Le Gorafi, the French version of The Onion, headlined his victory speech thus: “I Agree With The Voters Who Voted Against Me”), and during his actual victory speech, he took the time to thank every single one of his opponents by name (tellingly, except for Marine Le Pen). Yet underneath this apparent ideological flexibility there is a deep coherence: Macron is for whatever happens to be in the interests of the French ruling class.</p>
<p>The notorious Le Pen, meanwhile, is the leader of the populist movement representing the losers from the changes over the past decades. She is anti-immigration, anti-euro, anti-EU, anti-crime, but also anti-globalization and anti-liberalization. One of her signature issues was a major Hollande-era bill that slightly liberalized the French labor market and which she vowed to overturn — while Macron’s main complaint about it is that it didn’t go far enough. Le Pen’s core of support is the French working class, and one of the strongest correlates for Le Pen support is downward mobility.</p>
<p>While the old French parties had real differences, particularly on the size and scope of government, those differences still played out within a reigning post-war consensus. Meanwhile, it’s hard to think of an issue where Macron and Le Pen aren’t diametrical opposites, whether economics, foreign policy, immigration, or social issues. This is because, unlike the old parties, they represent fundamental differences about what ails the country and where to take it.</p>
<p>And their differences actually represent the rift in opinion regarding the main question facing France: How will the country deal with globalization? Does nationhood still mean anything in the 21st century, and if so, what? Is the global free movement of people an unalloyed good? Is the reigning milquetoast free market consensus a tide that lifts all boats, or does it just deepen inequality? More profoundly, is individual autonomy an absolute value, or do community and tradition still matter?</p>
<p>There is virtually no chance that Le Pen will win this time around, but given his own personal background and agenda, Macron represents the perfect foil for her. Macron’s government will feature faces from both left and right and will probably be unable to carry out significant reforms without a majority in Parliament, since Macron does not have a party behind him. He will validate her critique that the differences between left and right are just cosmetic and that the lot as a whole are incompetent.</p>
<p>But at the very least, the presidential debate will lay bare the tensions at the heart of French society and finally show the real issues facing the country. If it is true that, as goes France, so goes Europe, and as goes Europe, so goes, eventually, the world.</p>
<p>Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | France’s New Political Divide | false | https://eppc.org/publications/frances-new-political-divide/ | 1 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The capital funding projects detailed include the County Road 11 rehabilitation project, $450,000; Paseo del Volcan right of way acquisition, $1 million; broadband initiative, $500,000; Sandoval County Voting and Training Center, $540,500; and vehicles for the sheriff’s office, $486,000.</p>
<p>“This is the same request we do for Paseo del Volcan every year – right of way acquisition,” County Manager Phil Rios said. “We’re asking the state DOT to move forward with that project.”</p>
<p>The broadband initiative would provide broadband throughout the county and is something the county has been pursuing for a number of years, Rios said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The voting training center is the result of a request by Clerk Eileen Garbagni to allow early voting and other activities to take place in a building adjacent to the county administrative building, which would reduce overcrowding during events such as grand jury selections.</p>
<p>Rios said he doesn’t anticipate there will be much funding for the projects in the coming state legislative session.</p>
<p>He said no Sandoval County capital outlay projects were cut during the special session.</p>
<p>There could be up to 5.5 percent cuts in the senior program, with additional cuts in the DWI program and other community services.</p>
<p>Commission Chair Darryl Madalena said that several Native American programs were cut in the special session, which has concerned the tribes and the Southern Governors’ Council. He asked other commissioners to be aware of that in the 2017 legislative session.</p>
<p>The county’s legislative policies have not changed from past policies, Rios said.</p>
<p>They call for monitoring legislation that might impact the county, such as bills that would affect county revenues or funding sources, diminish its regulatory authority or affect various community services.</p>
<p>In other business, the commission unanimously approved a boost in budgets for law enforcement and senior programs, and decreased budgets for the DWI Department by $13,795 to reflect state funding cuts.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The law enforcement budget increase reflected a grant of $25,014 by a film production company.</p>
<p>The senior program budgets increased by $30,355.</p>
<p>The solid waste budget increased to reflect a $25,000 grant from the USDA Forest Service Southwestern Region for a study.</p>
<p>The commission also approved a motion to accept various land donations.</p>
<p>Garbagni announced that early voting sites, which open today, will be available from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday through Nov. 5.</p>
<p>All eight pueblos will also have their scheduled early voting sites. Locations and times are listed on Page 7 and on the county’s website at <a href="http://www.sandovalcounty.com/boe" type="external">www.sandovalcounty.com/boe</a>.</p>
<p /> | County approves legislative wish list | false | https://abqjournal.com/872948/county-approves-legislative-wish-list.html | 2016-10-22 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.