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<p>NEW YORK — Target Corp. has named a grocery industry veteran to help recharge its sluggish food division.</p>
<p>The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based chain said Monday that Jeff Burt will assume the title of senior vice president, grocery, fresh food and beverage on April 10.</p>
<p>Burt replaces Anne Dament, who left last November after only 18 months on the job.</p>
<p>Burt was most recently the president of the Fred Meyer division of Kroger Co. and worked at that company for 30 years.</p>
<p>The hire is the latest in a series of executive changes by CEO Brian Cornell who has been spearheading Target’s reinvention. The grocery business is a critical for pulling in customers to Target stores.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Target hires grocery veteran to recharge its food division | false | https://abqjournal.com/972704/target-hires-grocery-veteran-to-recharge-its-food-division.html | 2 |
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<p>Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED)&#160;shares lost nearly 25% of their value last month, <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">according to S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>. The drop was caused by word that the the federal government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may <a href="https://www.cms.gov/Center/Provider-Type/Home-Health-Agency-HHA-Center.html" type="external">cut reimbursement for home healthcare Opens a New Window.</a> by 0.4% next year and redesign its payment scheme altogether in 2019.</p>
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<p>Home healthcare providers rely heavily on Medicare for their revenue, and that means share prices can pop or drop depending on the payment proposals issued by the agency, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>Based on the new proposal from Washington, in 2018, the CMS' home health prospective payment system and wage index rates would <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/26/why-amedisys-is-crashing-143-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09c75576-7b9a-11e7-9435-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">reduce payments Opens a New Window.</a> to home healthcare providers by a combined 0.4%, or $80 million, industry-wide. As one of the largest home healthcare providers in the country, Amedisys would clearly face headwinds from those payment cuts.</p>
<p>The challenge to the company, however, could be even greater in 2019. That's when the&#160;CMS plans to change its payments model in a way that could reduce payments for services by up to 4.3%.</p>
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<p>Amedisys provides home health, hospice, and personal care to over 385,000 patients per year in 34 states. Although it generates revenue from other services, home health represents the lion's share of its sales. In the second quarter, for example, home healthcare was responsible for $274 million of its $379 million in total revenue, and about $198 million of that home healthcare revenue came from Medicare.</p>
<p>In Amedisys' Q2 conference call, management had little to say about the proposed changes, other than to note that they mean a total redesign of the payment system, and that the company will model its impact as soon as the CMS provides additional details.</p>
<p>Undeniably, the aging of the baby boomer cohort means there are strong demographic tailwinds supporting home healthcare; however, the risks from Washington are likely to remain, which means this company's share price may be more volatile than one might have previously expected.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than AmedisysWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=29939a24-c1ec-48d7-9a4a-afa5d4b67eca&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09c75576-7b9a-11e7-9435-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Amedisys wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/EBCapitalMarkets/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09c75576-7b9a-11e7-9435-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Todd Campbell Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. His clients may have positions in the companies mentioned.&#160;The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=09c75576-7b9a-11e7-9435-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Amedisys Shares Slumped 24.6% in July | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/08/why-amedisys-shares-slumped-24-6-in-july.html | 2017-08-08 | 0 |
<p>Starting any minute. The BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-38761165" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Theresa May has arrived at the White House for talks with US president Donald Trump as she hopes to renew the special relationship between Britain and America. The two leaders are spending about an hour in face-to-face talks in the Oval Office, where Mr Trump has restored a bust of Winston Churchill removed by his predecessor Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Mrs May believes Brexit and the election of Mr Trump will allow Britain and America to take up a stronger leadership role in the world. Top of the agenda for Mrs May will be preparations for a free trade deal between the UK and US, after Britain has withdrawn from the European Union.</p>
<p>But the pair will also discuss security challenges including Syria, Russia and the threat from Islamist terror. Mrs May was also under pressure to challenge the president over the use of torture techniques after Mr Trump expressed support for waterboarding.</p>
<p />
<p /> | LIVE VIDEO: Trump And British PM Hold Joint Address | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/01/27/live-video-trump-and-british-pm-hold-joint-address/ | 2017-01-27 | 4 |
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<p>“Every morning we come here, they’re all huddled in the corner,” said Marquita Mark, one of the outside vendors lined up in the City Market parking lot in Shiprock.</p>
<p>Smelling the freshly made fry bread and roast mutton, the dogs woke from their slumber, visiting each booth with a begging glance.</p>
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<p>The dogs wander without fear between cars, but as a person approaches, some get skittish and back away. Others approach at the sight of a crumb or the sound of a whistle.</p>
<p>Mark tossed slices of bread to one dog, an apparent mix between a hound and a shepherd, her fur matted and eyes weepy.</p>
<p>“This one always visits us,” Mark’s aunt, Paula, said. “There used to be another one that was brown that used to come with it. I don’t know what happened to it.”</p>
<p>While “rez dogs” always are vulnerable to their haphazard lifestyles, roaming wild around both the reservation’s desert and streets without the guarantee of food or water, the winter months can prove particularly fatal for the furry vagabonds.</p>
<p>Between cold nights and little food, many perish during the winter months.</p>
<p>“We see a lot of them on the road,” said Jeannie Benally, an extension agent with the University of Arizona’s agricultural and 4-H youth program.</p>
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<p>Benally herself took in a rez dog several years back, turning the dog from a bare-boned creature to a healthy, loving pet.</p>
<p>“If you save them, they want to protect you,” said Benally, who said she found her dog starving near a canal before taking it in.</p>
<p>The Navajo Nation Animal Control program estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of homeless dogs on the Navajo Nation, many traveling in packs, others solo.</p>
<p>Though some can be dangerous, most in the more urban areas, such as Shiprock, are more comfortable with people.</p>
<p>In fact, many start off in homes and are abandoned by their families.</p>
<p>“It’s common on the rez. People throw off their dogs all the time, especially if they’re girls,” said Seline Begaye, a grocery shopper who ended up taking home a dog found in the parking lot outside.</p>
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<p>Begaye noted that the female puppies, such as hers, are frequently given or thrown away because the owners do not want to fix the female, nor do they want to take care of her if she has puppies.</p>
<p>Because of the low-income levels on the reservation, many cannot afford to take their animals to the veterinarian, or to a clinic to get the animals spayed or neutered.</p>
<p>The pets then reproduce, creating more animals than the owners can afford to care for.</p>
<p>Begaye took home the female puppy, whom she has not yet named, after a woman in her car almost hit the small creature.</p>
<p>The puppy’s paws were covered in mud, as she had been seen following several people around aimlessly, according to the woman who initially almost hit her, and then picked her up.</p>
<p>While many people are tempted to pick up the dogs, they are known to carry disease and have various health issues – which also can worsen during the winter with increased hunger and exposure to the elements.</p>
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<p>While there are few local programs aimed at helping the rez dog population, some programs offer assistance from afar.</p>
<p>The Navajo Nation Puppy Adoption Program is one of the few trying to reduce the number of dogs that have to endure a winter without shelter. The program has volunteers take in found puppies for 10 to 12 weeks, giving them food, shelter and taking them in for their first shots while the program looks for homes for the animals.</p>
<p>The Blackhat Humane Society is another nonprofit dedicated to finding homes for dogs, and other animals, abandoned on the Navajo Nation.</p>
<p>For information about the care of a rez dog, locals can visit the Shiprock Veterinary Clinic. It does not have a full-time veterinarian, but it does have a veterinary technician and a part-time veterinarian who visits from Chinle once or twice a week to perform surgeries.</p>
<p>The clinic also has information about low-cost spay and neuter programs and other organizations knowledgeable about rez dogs.</p>
<p>“People are always dumping their dogs,” Benally said. “You don’t have to have a pit bull, a Rottweiler, or a popular dog, like a Labrador. Rez dogs will serve you well.”</p> | Temperature drop worse for ‘rez dogs’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/153209/temperature-drop-worse-for-re-zdogs.html | 2012-12-14 | 2 |
<p>In his <a href="" type="internal">historic interview</a> with the <a href="" type="internal">Al-Arabiya TV channel</a>, President Obama’s inclusive and respectful rhetoric towards Muslims attempted an elegant coup de grace to the divisive, insecure and arrogant bravado of the Bush administration. For many Muslims worldwide, however, the sincerity of such honey-coated words will only be legitimized by a responsible and balanced foreign policy that is no longer rooted in selfishness and historical amnesia.</p>
<p>Obama optimistically told the “Muslim world” – if even such a nebulous entity exists – that his “job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people …My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.”</p>
<p>Like a skillful and eloquent <a href="" type="internal">Cool Hand Luke</a>, Obama <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zPmVaCggyY" type="external">calmly exhibited respect, humility, and confidence</a>. He finally achieved his Colin Powell catharsis. He made a decisive and public break with Bush’s diminutive Dirty Harry personality and that administration’s “clash of civilizations” rhetoric by acknowledging the existence of Muslims as valuable partners necessary in traversing the fragile and volatile terrain known as the global “war on terror.”</p>
<p>Perhaps Obama reflected on the shameful legacies of his campaign, where Muslims were actively encouraged to vote and donate for his presidency, but only if they were hidden, maligned and unacknowledged – like the two veiled women whom his staffers removed from a televised Obama rally. At a fundraiser 12 days before the election, I asked a very high-ranking Democrat why Obama kept shunning Muslim Americans. He shot me a knowing look and responded, “You know – it’s only 12 days before the election,” thereby unsubtly and ironically reminding the Muslims present at the gathering about the detrimental electoral “taint” of being associated with our kind.</p>
<p>However, with his presidency and election now secure, Obama now openly welcomes and identifies with these former political kryptonites: “I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.”</p>
<p>Many Muslims, although initially offended by what they perceived as Obama’s slight towards their community despite their overwhelming support for his presidency, were nonetheless enthusiastic after hearing Obama’s Al-Arabiya interview, which repeatedly stressed respect towards the “Muslim world.” Faisal Ghori, an American Muslim and Principal at <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast" type="external">Middle East</a> Ventures, a Middle East and North Africa-focused strategy consultancy, echoed the feelings of many by calling it “groundbreaking for the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa" type="external">United States</a> in light of the last eight years” and “a step in the right direction.”</p>
<p>Obama’s initial executive order shutting down the <a href="" type="internal">draconian Guantánamo Bay facility</a> further signaled the emergence of a rare leader, making good on his promises and taking concentrated efforts at strategically rebuilding and redeeming our globally maligned image.</p>
<p>However, the tragedy of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gaza" type="external">Gaza</a> crisis still burdens the hearts of many Muslims who decry Obama’s words as hype and empty rhetoric in light of his refusal to directly criticize Israel for its brutal campaign in Gaza that left over 1,300 Palestinians dead.</p>
<p>When dealing with the Muslims, Obama urged: “We can have legitimate disagreements but still be respectful.” However, his reinforced commitment to Israel – despite the humanitarian crisis and global condemnation surrounding its actions in Gaza – is both polarizing and contentious to Muslims worldwide. When Obama firmly stated: “I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount,” many Muslims lost hope in Obama’s promise – and by extension the desire for a new and “improved” US Middle East foreign policy – due to perceptions of his unconditionally-biased loyalty towards Israel.</p>
<p>As Asilan Ekher, a Turkey journalist chosen as one of the prestigious “ <a href="" type="internal">Muslim leaders of tomorrow</a>” programme, told me: “If Obama really wanted to give a friendly message to the Muslim world, he would have definitely found a way to denounce the civilian deaths in Gaza in a diplomatic way, as he must know that it is the most sensitive issue for the majority of Muslims around the world at the moment.”</p>
<p>Noorjahan Ali Boolay, a Thai Muslim from Payap University, concurred: “I have to admit that my hope is high from listening to what Obama said [in the interview] but my heart is full of doubts and fears…. No matter how wrong, bad, or unfair the actions are, Israel will get full support and protection from America.”</p>
<p>For a loquacious man like Obama, who stirringly denounced the terrorist Mumbai attacks and spearheaded an economic advisory team even before taking the oath of office, his <a href="" type="internal">relative silence on the Gaza crisis</a> was shameful and surprising.</p>
<p>Moreover, Obama’s rhetoric from the interview implies he will continue the US’s dangerously belligerent offensive in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where pilotless drone aircraft attacks have killed more than 300 people – overwhelmingly civilians – over the past year. Obama promised the US is going to be “decisive in going after terrorist organisations that would kill innocent civilians, that we’re going to do so on our terms, and we’re going to do so respecting the rule of law.”</p>
<p>However, Obama must note that “our terms,” which are unnecessarily aggressive and unilateral, will not necessarily be welcomed by the beleaguered population of Central Asia, already hostage to eight years of Bush’s reign of unmitigated violence. Even though the US might consider civilian deaths as collateral damage, they inspire despair and anger which can be exploited by reactionaries for their Islamist jihad agenda.</p>
<p>The 30-year failure of such a myopic policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan can easily be witnessed in the blowback of violence and virulent anti-US sentiments espoused by extremists, who are housed in countries ruled by ineffectual and incompetent leaders. The same can be said about Israel and Palestine. Ultimately, Obama declared the “language we use has to be a language of respect … the language we use matters.” So does enlightened diplomacy. Let’s hope Obama ushers in real change by implementing both.</p>
<p>WAJAHAT ALI is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent. He is a playwright, essayist, humorist and Attorney at Law, whose work, “ <a href="http://www.domesticcrusaders.com/" type="external">The Domestic Crusaders</a>” is the first major play about Muslim Americans living in a post 9-11 America. His blog is at <a href="http://goatmilk.wordpress.com/" type="external">http://goatmilk.wordpress.com/</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Obama’s Al-Arabiya Interview | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/01/29/obama-s-al-arabiya-interview/ | 2009-01-29 | 4 |
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<p>Demand for 3D printers has slowed notably in 2016. Image source: 3D Systems.</p>
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<p>After six months of results, it's looking like 2016 is shaping up to be a transition year for 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD). During this time, 3D Systems' revenue has fallen 6.2% compared to the same six-month period in 2015. For the most part, 3D Systems' falling sales can be attributed to the widespread slowdown in customer spending that's affected the industrial and professional 3D printing markets since the start of 2016.</p>
<p>Out of all of 3D Systems' segments, this slowdown has put the most pressure on its 3D printer sales, making it the company's most disappointing segment in 2016 so far.</p>
<p>3D Systems' 3D printer sales have gone from bad to worse in 2016. Excluding consumer 3D printers, which 3D Systems' no longer offers, printer sales fell 17% year over year in the first quarter and 30% in the second quarter. This worsening situation suggests that demand has yet to stabilize for 3D printers -- a potentially worrying sign for investors.</p>
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<p>After all, each printer sale fuels the repeated sales of materials, which tend to command higher margins. Without healthy growth of 3D printer sales, the long-term prospects of this margin-enhancing revenue stream come into question.</p>
<p>The prevailing theory behind the widespread slowdown in 3D printer spending is that customers have an oversupply of 3D printing capacity on their hands, which is prompting them to increase the utilization of their existing printer systems instead of purchasing new printers.</p>
<p>Judging by 3D Systems' rising material sales, which increased 7.5% to $79.1 million during the first six months of 2016, this theory may hold some truth. It suggests that utilization of its previously sold 3D printers is on the rise, and existing customers may be finding more uses -- and greater value -- out of their printers.</p>
<p>Being a 3D printer hardware company first and foremost, it's certainly not ideal that 3D Systems' printer sales are struggling in 2016. However, it's worth noting that 3D Systems is growing its installed base of 3D printers with each sale it makes, regardless of growth rate. Technically, each 3D printer sale creates a potential stream of recurring revenue that's realized over the printer's lifetime. In other words, as long as 3D Systems sells more 3D printers, the base from which it can generate recurring sales of materials continues to grow -- albeit much slower than if printer sales were increasing.</p>
<p>Going forward, 3D Systems <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/07/as-the-prototyping-market-weakens-3d-systems-corpo.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">will continue to build out and emphasize its manufacturing solutions Opens a New Window.</a> over its prototyping solutions as a way to drive 3D printer sales. But until printer sales pick up, 3D Systems doesn't seem likely to realize its full potential.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTopDown/info.aspx" type="external">Steve Heller Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of 3D Systems. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3D Systems Corporation's Most Disappointing Segment in 2016 So Far | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/12/3d-systems-corporation-most-disappointing-segment-in-2016-so-far.html | 2016-08-12 | 0 |
<p>“When will it end?” asks my long-time friend and Nader supporter Tom –. “When will the cycle of supporting the lesser evil Democrat against the vicious, corrupt Republicans end in our liberation from the two-party trap?” I’m not in the business of predicting the future much so I shrug. I support the lesser of two evils philosophy and will vote for Kerry and will encourage others to do likewise; even more so, I will campaign for his election on November 2.</p>
<p>This has been a source of deep-rooted contention and near bare-knuckle brawling between Tom and I for several years now.</p>
<p>“I know that our immediate interest lies in making sure a sexist, homophobic, racist anti-union, war monger isn’t allowed to keep office,” I chime in.</p>
<p>“And Kerry’s better?”</p>
<p>“Yes. I think he is more open to popular influence.”</p>
<p>“But he voted for war, for the PATRIOT Act, for No Child Left Behind.”</p>
<p>Just as the argument seemed to have crested and our tones were on the verge of returning to civility, it began again.</p>
<p>So I put down my mug of black coffee, put four dollars on the diner counter, picked up my jacket and bid Tom a good evening.</p>
<p>This is how it goes every four years. When will this vicious cycle end?</p>
<p>Of course I know Tom is correct on many points. Kerry is a representative of the capitalist class and shares many of their interests. He has voted incorrectly many times. Even the “cycle” argument rings logical. If we refuse to threaten to leave the Democratic voter base, why should they ever move their politics to the left?</p>
<p>Kerry’s campaign has gotten off to a weak start, and he has taken centrist positions and has even mimicked some right-wing positions such has his unnecessarily firm rejection of extending an olive branch to President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.</p>
<p>Yet, polls show Nader capturing enough votes from his presumed constituency to cost Kerry the election. Will this push him to the left? Did Nader’s candidacy in 2000 (then with the support of an actual national political party) push Gore to the left? That’s up for debate.</p>
<p>Pro-third candidate activists say, “We don’t care what he does, or how many votes don’t go his way. We’re trying to win the election for Nader.” Of course most of their talk is bluster as no one – even they, if they spoke candidly – would lay money on Nader getting more than two or three percent of the vote, let alone winning.</p>
<p>Still others on the pro-third candidate side claim to be building a movement. A laudable ideal, but will such a movement have credibility if it ignores the remaining millions of voters or even worse uses the rhetoric of insult to attack voters who are “duped” by the Democratic machine or who aren’t bright enough to see the truth as they do?</p>
<p>But overall, these two camps have to confess the role they play is as the protest vote. That ultimately they are attempting to influence the direction of politics by pressuring the Democratic Party to see things their way.</p>
<p>Of course there are the relatively small handful of socialist sectarians who attack the “lesser evilism,” as they call it, of others while endorsing the lesser “lesser evilism” of the anti-Marxist, questionable working-class politics of the liberal Nader. Others of this stripe advocate boycotting the election, the complete abstention from participation in this crucial element of class struggle.</p>
<p>Taken alone, out of the context of our times, these arguments make a lot of sense. This is why a lot of well-meaning and very principled people, like my friend Tom, buy into them.</p>
<p>Eventually, it may make sense to buy into these arguments in one fashion or another.</p>
<p>But Kerry and Bush aren’t the same.</p>
<p>After using racist tactics to steal the vote in Florida in 2000, Bush has a proven record of planning and carrying out two wars of aggression for oil, for imperial power. Tens of thousands have been killed. He has planned and carried out two anti-democratic coups in the Western Hemisphere, one of which was successfully implemented by right-wing thugs funded by the Republican Party. The other thwarted by a massive uprising of hundreds of thousands. This administration pressured the Philippines government to suspend its Constitutional provisions against foreign occupation. Bush has supported to the hilt the assassination policy of the Sharon government in its dismantling of the peace process between Palestine and Israel. In Colombia, Bush supports with tax dollars an anti-union regime that has terrorized workers who seek to organize to improve their way of life. Everywhere, the Bush administration has threatened, cajoled, and pressured governments to toe its line with military and economic force.</p>
<p>In the U.S., Bush has worked overtime to strip workers of their rights. He has gutted environmental protections. He has appointed right-wing Christian fundamentalist ideologues to federal courts promising to erode the boundary between church and state, to undermine and ultimately withdraw a woman’s right to choose to be pregnant, and to heavily shift the balance of power to large corporations in numerous areas of civil justice from bankruptcy law to monopoly and the right to sue. On an unprecedented scale, Bush has redistributed hundreds of billions of dollars to the wealthy and shifted the already unjust tax burden more heavily on to the backs of working people. Even further, his policy of cutting taxes on capital and inherited property intensifies this disparity, especially for people of color who disproportionately more than whites earn their incomes through wages rather than capital or property. He plans to use billions of tax dollars to fund targeted religious fundamentalist groups to cultivate a far-right religious base for future Republican candidates.</p>
<p>This administration has driven racist, sexist, and homophobic wedges into the working class. He has steadfastly opposed affirmative action, has targeted schools in predominantly Black and Latino districts for “reform,” and has shown an utter lack of concern for the issues – domestic and international – that people of color have repeatedly asked, urged, or demanded that he address. His immigration policy is a restoration of the old bracero programs of the early 20th century that turns immigrant workers into virtual serfs to their employers and uses the threat of deportation to keep low wages and deplorable working conditions. He has refused to address disparities in hiring, promotion, and unequal wage practices for women. His view is that the government isn’t in the business of providing even a meager means of lifting people out of poverty with subsidy programs for education or training.</p>
<p>Lately he has even refused to extend unemployment benefits for about 400,000 laid off workers. His philosophy is that people in these situations have to fend for themselves. Meanwhile his economic policies have targeted sectors of the economy that are heavily populated by union workers. Hundreds of thousands of union workers, not accidentally, have lost work since Bush took office. His Medicare bill has threatened to make access to prescription drugs and other services much more expensive for the majority of American seniors. His rule on overtime will cut deeply into much needed earnings of as many as 8 million workers. The Bush administration’s proposed budget for 2005 could cut a quarter-million families out of the federal Section 8 subsidized-housing program. Cuts he implemented to veterans healthcare programs prevented about 160,000 veterans from obtaining services they had been promised.</p>
<p>But this is the short list of the Bush administration’s record. It isn’t a secret either. He is proud of it.</p>
<p>So why should we reward him with another four years under the cover that Kerry will be the same? We should send a message to Bush – and to Kerry – that we won’t tolerate this kind of record. It isn’t enough to defeat Bush on November 2. Pro-third candidates are correct. We have to delegitmize and isolate Bushism. But we do have to start by ending the Bush administration.</p>
<p>JOEL WENDLAND is Managing Editor Political Affairs A Marxist Monthly check us out at: <a href="http://www.politicalaffairs.net/" type="external">http://www.politicalaffairs.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Stop Bush; Move Forward | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/03/27/stop-bush-move-forward/ | 2004-03-27 | 4 |
<p>The federal government helped a couple of Muslim workers win a religious accommodation case, but has refused to do same for Christian bakers who refuse to bake a gay wedding cake.</p>
<p>Two Muslim truck drivers in 2009 were <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/eeoc-wins-discrimination-case-for-muslims-fired-for-not-delivering-beer/article/2574720" type="external">fired</a> by Star Transport for refusing to transport beer, as that would violate their Islamic faith. They sued the company, and were backed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On Thursday, the EEOC announced that it was able to win $240,000 for the two Muslims. Star Transport is <a href="http://www.pjstar.com/article/20151022/NEWS/151029737" type="external">no longer in business.</a></p>
<p>"EEOC is proud to support the rights of workers to equal treatment in the workplace without having to sacrifice their religious beliefs or practices," EEOC General Counsel David Lopez <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/eeoc-wins-discrimination-case-for-muslims-fired-for-not-delivering-beer/article/2574720" type="external">said in a statement.</a> "This is fundamental to the American principles of religious freedom and tolerance."</p>
<p>Lopez was an attorney in the recent high-profile Supreme Court case involving a Muslim woman who wasn't hired by Abercrombie and Fitch because of her head covering (image above).</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/eeoc-wins-discrimination-case-for-muslims-fired-for-not-delivering-beer/article/2574720" type="external">Washington Examiner,</a> the EEOC believed that Star Transport could have reassigned the two Muslims and, the company admitted liability. If true, then as Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/10/eeoc-wins-240000-damages-for-muslim-truckers-fired-for-not-delivering-beer" type="external">writes,</a> "the company was indeed in the wrong, although not necessarily to the tune of $240,000." He also points out that many Muslims who bring lawsuits like this tend to refuse to be reassigned to positions that accommodate their religion, although that doesn't appear to be the case here.</p>
<p>However, the EEOC has not backed up Christians when they're being forced to violate their religious beliefs. Consider the fact that Christian have been under attack for refusing to provide services for gay wedding ceremonies. One such <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2015/10/26/baker-who-doesnt-want-to-make-wedding-cakes-for-same-sex-couples-takes-his-case-to-colorado-supreme-court/" type="external">couple</a> is taking their case to the Colorado Supreme Court, and a couple Oregon <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/02/03/christian-bakers-face-government-wrath-for-refusing-to-make-cake-for-gay.html" type="external">faces</a> a hefty fine for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian couple's wedding. A photographer in New Mexico was told by a federal court she had to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-wont-review-new-mexico-gay-commitment-ceremony-photo-case/2014/04/07/f9246cb2-bc3a-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html" type="external">violate</a> her religious beliefs and photograph a gay wedding. And two Christian ministers in Idaho were <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/20/city-threatens-to-arrest-ministers-who-refuse-to-perform-same-sex-weddings.html" type="external">sued</a> for refusing to administer a gay wedding.</p>
<p>The EEOC has not stood up for these Christians. To argue that the examples above are discriminating based on sexual orientation is false. For instance, the photographer in New Mexico said she would gladly take portraits of gays and lesbians, but not of a gay wedding because that would be participating in an act that violates their religious conscious. The key distinction is refusing to participate in events that violate one's faith rather than refusing a service based on race or gender. It's no different than a Jewish photographer refusing to photograph a neo-Nazi rally or a Muslim trucker refusing to transport beer.</p>
<p>And yet for Christians, the EEOC is silent, suggesting that there is a clear bias in the federal government in favor of Muslims and against Christians.</p>
<p>Image (via AP): Samantha Elauf, center, her mother Majda Elauf, left, and P. David Lopez, General Counsel of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), leave the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. The Supreme Court is indicating it will side with a Muslim woman who didn't get hired by clothing retailer Abercrombie &amp; Fitch because she wore a black headscarf that conflicted with the company's dress code to her job interview.</p> | Feds Back Muslim Religious Accommodations, But Not for Christians | true | https://dailywire.com/news/696/feds-back-muslim-religious-accommodations-not-aaron-bandler | 2015-10-27 | 0 |
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
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<p />On Monday, another 73 protesters were arrested in front of the North Carolina General Assembly. That brings the total number of Moral Monday arrests to 920 since the demonstrations began in late April. The NAACP and other activist groups have challenged North Carolina GOP's agenda of abortion restrictions, cuts to education, the elimination of unemployment benefits, and raising taxes on 80&#160;percent of residents while cutting them for top earners. This week, protesters gathered at the Statehouse to oppose GOP plans to pass one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country and the elimination of early voting, as well as budget plans which paved the way for privatization of education.
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<p />Now joining us to unpack all this is Reverend Curtis Gatewood. Reverend Gatewood is a coalition coordinator for the North Carolina NAACP headquarters. From 2005 to 2011, Gatewood served as second vice president of the state's NAACP. He joins us now from Raleigh, where ongoing Moral Monday protests have turned out thousands of people demonstrating against the GOP-controlled state legislature.
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<p />Thanks for joining us, Reverend Gatewood.
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<p />REV. CURTIS E. GATEWOOD, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER, NORTH CAROLINA NAACP: It is a pleasure joining you. And I bring you greetings on behalf of the North Carolina NAACP.
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<p />And let me just say, while I'm saying NAACP, I'll remind your audience that NAACP is not an acronym for the National Association for the Advancement of Chicken Plates. It's not the National Association for the Advancement of Corporations and Politicians. It's not the National Association for the Advancement of Coward People. We are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 104 years of blood, sweat, and tears. We were here 100 years before the Tea Party started, and we'll be 100 years after the Tea Party's over.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. Well, thank you so much for that breakdown. Well, let's get right into it, Reverend. Can you explain to our viewers exactly what is in this Senate-proposed voter restriction bill? And can you compare it to the one that passed in the House last month?
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<p />GATEWOOD: Sure, Jessica. And thank you for the question. The bill that passed the House where--we had an issue with the fact that it discriminated against certain colleges. It would not permit IDs, photo IDs from private colleges. Well, this particular bill that's being proposed and introduced by the Senate would not allow any college IDs to be acceptable. And as you know, we were already opposed to any form of photo voter ID because of the fact we've had 237 years we haven't needed voter ID, never had voter ID. But now we're hearing all of a sudden we need voter ID.
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<p />Another way that this bill is even worse than the bill that was already introduced, already passed by the House is that this bill will not accept any ID that has been provided by those who receive public assistance. We see that as another slap at the poor, whereas the bill that was passed by the House versus the Senate, that bill would permit any ID that's been used, provided by those who received public assistance. That would have been sufficient.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: What is their argument against using those types of, those forms of ID?
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<p />GATEWOOD: Well, it's hard for us to try to rationalize any of this, because we would not understand any of it. So I would prefer that we ask that question to them, because, again, we've been here 237 years. We haven't needed any form of ID [incompr.] we have voter signature attestation, which would provide sufficient--if anyone wanted to come in and get--pick up the ballot, if they will sign their name saying, I'd be willing to subject myself to a five-year felony if I'm lying, that normally had been sufficient.
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<p />So we do not understand any of this, because the only thing that we can see-- we have a narrow-minded agenda, but we have a continuously building coalition of people, a rainbow that's beginning to expand as far as African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, progressive whites, and young people who are coming in with a mind that's not set, that's tempered with this old sense of racism of the old South. We have a young people who are now building coalitions and who are--and I think President Obama said it rightly when he said that younger people that we are looking at today, they are much better than us in how they are open-minded when they're looking at straight versus gay, black versus white, old versus young. They are more open-minded.
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<p />So in order for them to be able to win, the only thing they can do is cheat and to try to narrow the electorate down to the narrow-minded agenda that they have. So the only way they can see that they can survive rather than changing their policies and becoming more just and more righteous, they're trying to narrow down and cut down the number of people who would be voting.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. And you just described just how diverse your the protesters are, your coalition is. Can you tell us a little bit about why you think so many people are willing to be arrested for this movement? Because by all appearances, this has been one of the strongest movements since the Occupy movement, really. Why are we seeing so many people willing to go to the front lines for this?
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<p />GATEWOOD: Well, it's exactly what I said. They're underestimating the will, the might, and the power of a broader and broader coalition of people. What has gone on over, I would say, probably since the past 50 years, there was this belief that if you could race-bait the poor, race-bait poor whites into believing that [incompr.] demonize a certain group of people, whether it be African-Americans or Latinos, and make them appear as if they are the ones who are receiving free assistance or undeserving assistance when we talk about Medicaid, when we talk about food stamps, when we're talking about things that would actually help those who are actually struggling and working hard, if you can demonize that group and make them believe it's them versus us, then what you've done is you've made--you've created an atmosphere where poor whites will vote against their own interests.
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<p />But now that we have an expanding demographic of people across the nation, you have an influx of Hispanics here in North Carolina, you have African-American voting right now or before, you have young people who are now emerging with an attitude that says, I'm about voting my best interests rather than propaganda, with that going on, then we're seeing people who are also willing to join a movement that is about justice, that is about righteousness, that is about building upon what we have in common versus trying to divide us based upon what we may not--divide us against our own self interests. So more and more people are beginning to wake up.
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<p />And when we come and actually break down exactly what is going on and help to educate people on how denying a half-million people Medicaid will hurt all of us, whether we be black, white, Latino, young, or old, when we actually help the people to understand when you deny unemployment benefits to 170,000 people who are eligible for, who earn, who at no fault of their own lost their jobs, when you see that that's going to hurt my grandparents or that's going to hurt my brother or my sister, I think people are beginning to see. So as we break down these policies and as they start to become into effect, where people can actually feel the pain, then the more and more you're going to see people coming out, the more you're going to see, well, we've been tricked again because we've had people who are playing parlor tricks and using tricks against us to keep us divided.
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<p />They denied us because they could divide us, lie to us. But now God is beside us to guide us to demand jobs, justice, education, under one God as one nation. And the one nation's coming together.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay. Let's look forward a little bit. We have the North Carolina legislature summer session approaching. What's next for the movement? And could you describe some of your short-term and long-term goals?
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<p />GATEWOOD: Well, what's next for the movement is we've decided that if they're going to take a break and go home, then we're going to go home where they go. In other words, we may suspend the protests down at the General Assembly as they go home. But we're now working to make sure we have protests and rallies set up in the various areas where many of these representatives live. So that's what we'll be doing. We're going to be organizing local rallies, local protests, voter registration campaigns throughout the state of North Carolina. And then when they come back, we will be back picking up the protest, picking up the Moral Mondays. And if it have to come down to Moral Tuesday, Moral Wednesday, Moral Thursday, Moral Friday, then so be it.
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<p />But we are not backing up. We're not turning around. We're not going to sit down. We're going to stand up. We've seen this movie before. We've been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the hat. We're saying no to Jim Crow. We're not going back. So we're going to mobilize and we're going to organize. And we have the strength, we have the intelligence, we have the intellect, we have the knowledge about the Constitution.
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<p />And also we have God on our side. We're not allowing them to use the Bible to just pick out the issues they want. They want to talk about abortion, they want to talk against homosexuals, they want to talk to about prayer in the schools and overlooking the major part of the Bible which speaks to love, which speaks to poverty, which speak to what we should do with the oppressed to make sure that they're inspired, to make sure that they're included, to make sure they're in love, that they are loved.
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<p />So we have all of the resources that we need. We have the will of the people. So while they may have a temporary majority, we believe that as the people continue to come together, as they continue to understand that we're on the right side of history, we're on the right side of the Constitution, we're on the right side of God. And we believe this movement going to continue to expand.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Well, we'll continue to be following this movement. Thank you so much for joining us, Reverend Gatewood.
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<p />GATEWOOD: You're certainly welcome. God bless you.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | 920 'Moral Monday' Arrests Made, NC Movement Vows to Push Back on Senate Voter ID Bill | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10477 | 2013-07-23 | 4 |
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<p>MIAMI — Florida residents picked store shelves clean and long lines formed at gas pumps Wednesday as Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 monster with potentially catastrophic winds of 185 mph, steamed toward the Sunshine State and a possible direct hit on the Miami metropolitan area of nearly 6 million people.</p>
<p>The most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic destroyed homes and flooded streets as it roared through a chain of small islands in the northern Caribbean some 1,000 miles from Florida. Forecasters said Irma could strike the Miami area by early Sunday, then rake the entire length of the state’s east coast and push into Georgia and the Carolinas.</p>
<p>“This thing is a buzz saw,” warned Colorado State University meteorology professor Phil Klotzbach. “I don’t see any way out of it.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>An estimated 25,000 people or more left the Florida Keys after all visitors were ordered to clear out, causing bumper-to-bumper traffic on the single highway that links the chain of low-lying islands to the mainland.</p>
<p>But because of the uncertainty in any forecast this far out, state and local authorities in Miami and Fort Lauderdale held off for the time being on ordering any widespread evacuations there.</p>
<p>Republican Gov. Rick Scott waived tolls on all Florida highways and told people if they were thinking about leaving to “get out now.” But in the same breath, he acknowledged that “it’s hard to tell people where to go until we know exactly where it will go.”</p>
<p>Amid the dire forecasts and the devastating damage done by Hurricane Harvey less than two weeks ago in Houston, some people who usually ride out storms in Florida seemed unwilling to risk it this time.</p>
<p>“Should we leave? A lot of people that I wouldn’t expect to leave are leaving. So, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow!'” said Martie McClain, 66, who lives in the South Florida town of Plantation. Still, she was undecided about going and worried about getting stuck in traffic and running out of gas.</p>
<p>The many construction cranes at sites around South Florida could pose a serious threat if they are toppled.</p>
<p>In Miami, the deputy director of the Building Department, Maurice Pons, said that there about two dozen such cranes in the city alone and that they were built to withstand winds up to 145 mph, but not a Category 5 hurricane.</p>
<p>He said he could “not advise staying in a building next to a construction crane during a major hurricane like Irma.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>As people rushed to buy up water and other supplies, board up their homes with plywood and fill up their cars, Scott declared a state of emergency and asked the governors of Alabama and Georgia to waive trucking regulations so gasoline tankers can get fuel into Florida quickly to ease shortages. Scott said he anticipates gas stations being restocked by Thursday morning and urged people to take only what they need when fueling up.</p>
<p>It has been almost 25 years since Florida took a hit from a Category 5 storm. Hurricane Andrew struck just south of Miami in 1992 with winds topping 165 mph (265 kph), killing 65 people and inflicting $26 billion in damage. It was at the time the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.</p>
<p>“We’ll see what happens,” President Donald Trump said in Washington. “It looks like it could be something that could be not good, believe me, not good.”</p>
<p>Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach — the unofficial Southern White House — sits in the path of the storm.</p>
<p>This is only the second time on Earth since satellites started tracking storms about 40 years ago that one maintained 185 mph winds for more than 24 hours, Colorado State’s Klotzbach said.</p>
<p>University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said Irma could easily prove the costliest storm in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Jeff Masters, director of the Weather Underground forecasting service, warned that high winds and large storm surges will damage expensive properties from Miami to Charleston, South Carolina.</p>
<p>“If it goes right up the Gold Coast like the current models are saying, then the Gold Coast is going to become the Mud Coast,” Masters said. “That includes Mar-a-Lago.”</p>
<p>While Florida building codes were tightened and enforced more stringently after Andrew, the population since then has grown, coastal development has continued, and climate change has become more pronounced.</p>
<p>Under 2001 rules, housing in most parts of Florida must be built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, meaning winds of up to 129 mph. Miami-Dade and Broward counties have more stringent building codes requiring some structures to withstand Category 4 winds of 146 mph and 140 mph respectively.</p>
<p>As Irma drew closer, Georgia and South Carolina declared a state of emergency. North Carolina declared a state of emergency taking effect Thursday morning.</p>
<p>“It’s just scary, you know? We want to get to higher ground. Never had a Cat 5, never experienced it,” said Michelle Reynolds, who was leaving the Keys as people filled gas cans and workers covered fuel pumps with “out of service” sleeves.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Fineout reported from Tallahassee. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington; Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Josh Replogle in Key Largo, Florida, also contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HURRICANE NEWSLETTER — Get the best of the AP’s all-formats reporting on Irma and Harvey in your inbox: <a href="http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb" type="external">http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb</a></p> | ‘This is a buzz saw’: Florida braces for Hurricane Irma | false | https://abqjournal.com/1059237/even-intrepid-keys-residents-ready-to-evacuate-ahead-of-irma.html | 2017-09-06 | 2 |
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<p>Of the many&#160;public takedowns of RoseAnn DeMoro, the boss of the largest nurses’ union in America, one of the funniest is a campy&#160;YouTube&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jRTs9apRk" type="external">video</a> called “The Devil Wears Scrubs.” The DeMoro character arrives for a job interview wearing a red cape and horns and carrying a toy pitchfork. The interviewer hands her a job description. “Wait a minute!” says devil DeMoro, looking offended. “It says here I’ll be expected to engage in underhanded and covert activities, including potentially unduly influencing other unions’ elections, union raids, and member intimidation.” She would also have to lie, misrepresent her union activities to the press, “and basically try to force every state nurses’ association in the country to follow our political agenda even if they disagree with it.”</p>
<p>“Uh, yeah,” the interviewer replies. “Is that going to be a problem?”</p>
<p>DeMoro, gripping her pitchfork, puts a finger to her chin and grins malevolently. “Are you kidding?” she says. “I live for that shit!”</p>
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<p>In her two-plus decades as head of the California Nurses Association (CNA)—and more recently its affiliate <a href="https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/" type="external">National Nurses United</a> (NNU), with 150,000 members in 50 states—DeMoro has become an angel in the eyes of her supporters and a demon to her foes. Lawmakers and hospital executives hate her members’ take-no-prisoners tactics, which have included enlisting an actress in a velvet cape to chase and mock GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman around the state and, during one memorable 2001 demonstration at the offices of an industry group, threatening to collectively pee their pants. Some Hillary Clinton fans blame DeMoro for helping Donald Trump by <a href="https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/blog/nnu-statement-ana-endorsement-hillary-clinton" type="external">rallying</a> her members behind Sen. Bernie Sanders and attacking rival organizations for supporting Clinton. Still others hate her for the $450,000 she makes in a year, her foul mouth, and the fact that she’s a career labor organizer who has never worked as a nurse. The devil, it turns out, does&#160;not&#160;wear scrubs.</p>
<p>But as Trump tries to sabotage Obamacare, DeMoro—pitchfork in hand—is leading the counteroffensive in California, pushing single-payer health care in a campaign she hopes will offer a blueprint for how progressives can defeat the GOP. The battle also pits DeMoro against Democratic leaders who fear the proposed program could trigger a ferocious response from Trump and possibly bust the state budget. But all sides realize it’s a test case that could determine the future of universal health care in America.</p>
<p>In this modern era of polished union bosses, DeMoro, 69, retains an old-school flair, with a classic&#160;Norma Rae&#160;hairstyle and a disposition more Jimmy Hoffa than Sheryl Sandberg, more “in your face” than “lean in.” “Herb Caen once called me Mother Teresa with brass knuckles,” DeMoro told me recently at her union’s Oakland headquarters. “I don’t know about the Mother Teresa stuff, but I like the part about the brass knuckles.”</p>
<p>I’d arrived at an auspicious moment. The single-payer bill, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB562" type="external">SB 562</a>, had passed the state Senate on a mostly party-line vote of 23-to-14—but several weeks before our meeting, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, one of the state’s top Democrats, had blocked it from proceeding because he believed it was “woefully incomplete.” DeMoro took this as an act of war. “You don’t deny people health care,” she told me, “and think there won’t be repercussions.”</p>
<p>If DeMoro is a throwback, so is the CNA’s growth curve. While most American unions were hemorrhaging, “the nurses,” as members call themselves, increased almost sixfold, from 17,000 in 1993—the year DeMoro took charge—to about 100,000 today. Part of that expansion involved wresting thousands of members from rival unions, but DeMoro attributes her success to her union’s steadfast commitment to caregivers and patients. Beyond pushing for stricter nurse-to-patient ratios and other professional prerogatives, the CNA’s activities include rallying to address climate change, providing disaster relief, and lobbying legislators to fight for the state’s lower drug costs. The nurses endorsed a universal health care bill in <a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/05/30/72240/california-s-long-history-of-efforts-at-health-car/" type="external">1994</a> and <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=200720080SB840" type="external">two</a> subsequent single-payer bills that passed the Legislature only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The latest attempt, SB 562, was a strategic response to Republican attacks on Obamacare and Medicaid. “The best way to fight,” says Chuck Idelson, DeMoro’s longtime communications chief, “is to have an alternative.” And his boss’ choice of battles reflects her philosophy that, as she puts it, “you cannot be a patient advocate and&#160;not&#160;be a social advocate.”</p>
<p>The first time DeMoro ever felt energized by a political candidate was during Bernie Sanders’ 1981 run for mayor of Burlington, Vermont. She was just an impoverished graduate student studying sociology at the University of California-Santa Barbara, working on the side as a grocery store clerk, but she managed to cough up a $20 donation. Now she counts herself as Sanders’ longtime friend and ally—”I feel like a part of his family.” After quitting grad school, DeMoro worked as an organizer for the Teamsters before landing, in 1986, a gig as the assistant director of collective bargaining for the CNA, then run by administrators and executives. When the union’s management asked members to embrace heavier patient loads, DeMoro and 12 fellow organizers were fired for drumming up opposition. A coup ensued—CNA veterans call it “the revolution.” The suits were ousted and the organizers were reinstated. Nurses loyal to DeMoro were promptly elected to the CNA’s board of directors, which proceeded to name her executive director.</p>
<p>On her watch, the CNA racked up a string of victories—including the first-ever state law capping patient-to-nurse <a href="https://www.cga.ct.gov/2004/rpt/2004-R-0212.htm" type="external">ratios</a>. In 2005, when Schwarzenegger tried to repeal it, the nurses fought back viciously and won, trailing him all the way to Ohio to picket. But a decade later, after Sanders chose DeMoro to help write the party’s platform with the Democratic National Committee, she was blocked by party officials who allegedly said they “didn’t want any more labor representatives.” DeMoro’s take: “I just don’t think they wanted&#160;this&#160;labor representative.”</p>
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<p>Her icy relationship with top Democrats has emboldened her to attack any politician she deems insufficiently supportive of single-payer—including Assemblyman Rendon, who, as DeMoro likes to point out, has received more than $100,000 from Big Pharma and $55,000 from health insurers, while the state Democratic Party has collected more than $4.3 million in similar donations. “I’ve never seen such a denial of democracy,” she says.</p>
<p>DeMoro doesn’t want the party to squander a historic opportunity—a supermajority in the Legislature at a time when Trump outrage is at a fevered pitch: “We have this organic convergence that would make the time for single-payer precisely perfect,” she says. If Rendon had let SB 562 proceed, “California could’ve been just golden. It could’ve been leading the nation.”</p>
<p>It still may. Not long after visiting the nurses’ headquarters, I attended a CNA conference, where Sanders was slated to discuss the single-payer bill he’d <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/17-senators-introduce-medicare-for-all-act" type="external">introduced</a> in the US Senate a week earlier with the nurses’ endorsement. “When the US joins the rest of the industrialized world in guaranteeing health care to all through a single-payer system,” Sanders later told me, “it will be fully recognized that RoseAnn and NNU were leaders in helping make that happen.”</p>
<p>The mood was feisty in the San Francisco Marriott ballroom where roughly 1,000 attendees gathered. Most, like 90 percent of the CNA’s rank and file and 31 of its 32 directors, were women. “I think we’re closer now than we’ve ever been,” board member Maureen Dugan, who briefed the crowd on contract negotiations with the University of California system, told me later. “The day is gone where you can&#160;say&#160;you support single-payer.&#160;Show&#160;me!”</p>
<p>But enacting single-payer requires broad-based coalition-building, to which DeMoro’s confrontational methods may not be well suited. “Using fear and intimidation as a tactic in the Legislature usually doesn’t get you too far,” Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist, recently told the industry publication&#160;California Healthline. Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California, doesn’t see it that way. Win or lose, she says, DeMoro “moves the needle on what is politically possible.”</p>
<p>The devil, of course, is in the details. California’s bill, as written, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB562" type="external">could cost</a> a whopping $400 billion per year, though supporters are quick to <a href="https://www.peri.umass.edu/media/k2/attachments/PollinZetZalZECONOMICZANALYSISZOFZCAZSINGLE-PAYERZPROPOSAL---5-31-17.pdf" type="external">point</a> out that the state currently spends about $260 billion on health care, and 3 million state residents are uninsured. At least half the funding for the new measure could be covered by shifting money now spent on Medicare, Medi-Cal, and other state health services to the single-payer program. The state could fund the rest by enacting two new taxes, according to a study commissioned by the CNA—a 2.3 percent tax on business revenue exceeding $2 million and an equivalent spike in sales tax—combined with credits for low-income families. The political gamble, apart from the fact that insurance companies are powerful and tax increases are unpopular, is that the Trump administration could try to withhold <a href="http://www.chcf.org/publications/2017/09/california-health-care-spending" type="external">hundreds of billions of dollars</a> in federal funds from the new program. That could doom universal health care in California and throw Medi-Cal and Medicaid into disarray, risking coverage for millions of people.</p>
<p>DeMoro doesn’t know if the president would go that far, but she has never been one to shy away from a standoff. Such a crisis might even work in her favor by forcing moderates to pick a side. “We need to be more than anti-Trump,” she told me. “There’s a reason why the Republicans were able to get traction against the Affordable Care Act. It’s unaffordable, and the quality of care isn’t what it should be.”</p>
<p>According to recent studies and polls, <a href="http://www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/s_917mbs.pdf" type="external">67 percent</a> of Californians (and <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/23/public-support-for-single-payer-health-coverage-grows-driven-by-democrats/" type="external">60 percent</a> of all Americans) said they thought the government should guarantee universal health care coverage. And the vast majority of California nurses want single-payer. DeMoro’s primary mission is to make sure politicians heed those voices—and take action. “It’s their job to at least&#160;try,” she said.</p>
<p>But when I ask her what’s next, DeMoro drops a bombshell. “I wanted to retire when we got single-payer passed,” she says, but “any day now” she plans to turn the reins over to her second-in-command, Bonnie Castillo.</p>
<p>A nurse for 33 years, Castillo lacks her boss’ foulmouthed charisma. It remains to be seen whether she’s capable of filling the unusually large shoes of DeMoro, whose influence on nurses—and state politics—has, for better or worse, been indelible. “RoseAnn has steeled us,” Castillo said when I asked whether she’s up to the challenges ahead. DeMoro taught them “how to take a stand on behalf of our patients, and you know what? It may not be ladylike.”</p> | RoseAnn DeMoro Has Political Enemies Everywhere. But the Nurses Union Chief Might Save Our Health Care. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/roseann-demoro-has-political-enemies-everywhere-but-the-nurses-union-chief-might-save-our-healthcare/ | 2018-01-01 | 4 |
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<p>Quietly and with little fanfare, Occupiers have set up a <a href="http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/occupiers-set-up-camp-soak-up-rays-in-union-square/" type="external">second camp at Union Square</a>. There aren't any tents propped up yet, but some protesters did bring sleeping bags, indicating their intention to remain at the square indefinitely.</p>
<p>“We reached consensus today to try to make this a permanent occupation,” said Darah McJimsey, a 23-year-old activist who came to New York from California in November to join the Occupy movement full-time. “Although we’re aware of what we’re up against, we're going to draw on our skills as far as being mobile.”</p>
<p>When I visited the second occupation over the weekend, there were only five Occupiers holding down the location, but as of this week that number has grown to some 25 protesters, many of whom sat shirtless in the sunshine. The cluster of protesters is easy to spot, gathered beneath the familiar yellow "OCCUPY WALL ST" banner at the top of the steps. (photo by @ASE)</p>
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<p>The decision to occupy the square was made by 20 to 30 activists who travelled there after police brutally dispersed around 500 people from Zuccotti Park on Saturday, the Times reports. Occupy's website now features a call to "Occupy Union Square," and claims over 70 people are participating in the occupation.</p>
<p>"Although tents and tables are still banned, Occupiers have brought blankets and sleeping gear. Many are calling it, 'The New Occupation,'" the website states.</p>
<p>“It’s experimental,” explained Ms. McJimsey to the Times. “The cops told us at 4 a.m. that ‘you need to sit up.’ They weren’t going to arrest us for laying down though, so it’s kind of unclear what we’re allowed to do and not allowed to do.”</p>
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<p>Like the first occupation, this new protest inspired some eyerolling from naysayers when I informed them about it. "It won't last," and "The cops will break it up," have become familiar refrains in reporting the public's reaction to Occupy. The same statements were made in September when a couple dozen people started setting up tents in a small cement park called Zuccotti. (photo by @CarrieM123)</p>
<p>But even some Occupiers have their doubts about this new camp.</p>
<p>Steven Shryrock, 60, a computer graphics professional who held a cardboard sign reading “Ask us about Occupy Wall St,” was doubtful about whether the newly declared occupation would last. He said, “I don’t know how long we’re going to keep doing it right here, but if the police are going to be so nasty about Zuccotti from now on, it’s hard to say.”</p>
<p>The Post reported one protester, <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/ows_protester_busted_after_climbing_Z00EF7o7Dvz5paMZFGZLRJ#ixzz1paj4f4mF" type="external">Daniel Jaffe</a>, 33, has been arrested after he climbed onto the George Washington statue and refused to come down.</p>
<p>Protester Lauren Digioia wears police tape during an Occupy Wall Street protest in Union Square on March 19, 2012 in New York City (photo by&#160;Mario Tama/Getty)</p>
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<p>"Our ability to occupy the commons in order to voice dissent is a vital political right," the <a href="http://occupywallst.org/article/occupy-union-square-join-us-protest/" type="external">Occupy website</a> states. "We do not need a permit to exist in public space. We call on all those who would stand for equality, justice, and liberation - and against the banks, corporations, wealthy elites, and corrupt politicians who have stolen our democracy and ruined our economy - to join us now."</p>
<p>The statement closes: "Spring is coming. The time to get involved is now!"&#160;</p>
<p>On Monday, two City Council members who have supported OWS since the beginning, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304636404577292050049840064.html?mod=googlenews_wsj" type="external">Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams</a>, denounced what they characterize as police abuse of protesters during a press conference held at Zuccotti Park. (photo by Getty)</p>
<p>The protesters "are not terrorists, they are not enemies of the state," said Williams. "This park is to be used by the public. Occupy Wall Street is part of the public." He added: "What this is about—and let's be clear—is suppression of dissent."</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reports that the council members are in the process of writing legislation for a protesters' bill of rights, which they plan to bring forth to City Council later this week.</p>
<p>One of the central concerns of protesters, and Rodriguez, is the Federal Restricted Grounds Improvement Act, recently signed by President Obama, which restricts access to public spaces when Secret Service officials are on the premises.</p>
<p>"There was a lot of excessive force used by the NYPD," said Rodriguez. "We believe that a protesters' bill of rights will send a clear definition of the responsibly of the NYPD." The council member was arrested during an Occupy Wall Street-related protest on Nov. 17, 2011.</p>
<p>The new law re-writes an exiting 1971 trespass law, removing a single word that could have a huge impact on protesters. The original law states someone had to act "wilfully and knowingly" when committing the crime. Now, the language states that the actor only need behave "knowingly," meaning a person could be charged simply for knowing they were in a restricted area, even if they are not committing a crime.</p>
<p>The timing of the new act is interesting given the recent relocation of the G8 to Camp David following plans for massive protests in Chicago, and statements from OWS protesters about surging during the spring and summer.</p> | Occupiers Set Up Camp in Union Square | true | http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/12922/occupiers_set_up_camp_in_union_square/ | 2012-03-20 | 4 |
<p>In a recent New Yorker, Richard Rovere made these points:</p>
<p>1) there is no basic difference between the Korean and the Vietnamese wars;</p>
<p>2) nor is the different reaction to both due to the more developed techniques of reporting;</p>
<p>3) but there is a difference in feeling between the present younger generation and that of 20 years ago.</p>
<p>No network would have offered pictures from the Korean war front like the ones we have seen recently, and the reporters themselves tended to stress the idealistic features of that war as against its realistic grimness. We are no longer afraid to disturb the unity of the country in time of war. The generation that has grown up since the 40's rejects both ideological wars and Realpolitik, and it overreacts against the conformism of the 50's; agreement with any authority has become suspect, and strong gestures of autonomy are a psychological need. If there were no war in Vietnam, this generation would find other issues on which to disagree. While the war offers an ideal target for protest, it is not the cause of that protest but its occasion. With apologies to McLuhan: the movement is the message; it is not any particular message of pacifism or humanism that now makes people think about society, but it is the massive desire to drop out of society that makes people react against the war.</p>
<p /> | The Movement Is the Message | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-movement-is-the-message | 2018-01-01 | 4 |
<p>Israel has declared that the withdrawal does not mean an end of confrontations. Hamas supporters in Gaza marched in defiance today, declaring the withdrawal a victory. This Israeli spokesman calls such claims propaganda. This spokesman says there is no quick solution and that Israel has to keep on the pressure. But keeping the pressure on Hamas may not be in Israel's interest. This military analyst says the situation in Gaza is so desperate that Hamas feels it has nothing to lose by shooting rockets into Israel. He thinks Israel will eventually have to engage by Hamas, an idea which has been promoted by many Israelis on the left. But hardliners within Hamas show no interest in a ceasefire and the US has ruled out talks with Hamas.</p> | Israel considers more Gaza operations | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-03-03/israel-considers-more-gaza-operations | 2008-03-03 | 3 |
<p>With numbers coming in prompting economic analysts to use elated phrases such as “off the charts” and “its about time,” it looks as if Christmas may be a little bit better for a lot of Americans this year. Economists expected a 228,000 job gain, but the final number greatly exceeded predictions with 321,000 new jobs.</p>
<p>CNN Money states that close to 70 percent of U.S. industries have added jobs last month, which has not been matched in over a decade. To compare, 86 percent of the companies in the U.S. were cutting jobs 5 years ago.</p>
<p>To add to the surge, electronics chain stores and department stores are not cutting staff although losing income due to online shopping. Some part-time workers are being moved to full-time at this time, and the entire staff will generally experience longer work hours. Benefits may also be more available. For instance, a global outsourcing service in Nashville, Tenn. is offering close to 5,7000 full-time jobs with benefits. Kohl has hired 34 percent more seasonal workers than last year, Wal-Mart 10 percent more and shippers UPS and FedEx are also employing more workers than the year before.</p>
<p>CNN Money states that 2014 was a year of strong economic growth due to the public being able to meet the once-suppressed demand for homes and cars along with low energy prices. In contrast, local schools,state governments, coal mining companies and textile and clothing manufacturers are cutting jobs, which leads to the question of whether&#160;these new jobs available provide a long-term benefit to workers.</p>
<p>Many of the new jobs do not provide high pay. Median wages in retail and wholesale trade have dropped 15 percent, and hospitality and leisure wages have fallen 5 percent. Industries that typically hire 25 to 34-year-olds have mostly all fallen in the past 10 years. The healthcare industry, known for providing satisfactory wages, was the only group that saw an increase in wages— but only at 2 percent.</p>
<p>While living expenses such as gas prices have fallen for most U.S. citizens –&#160;South Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Virginia and New Mexico may soon be joining Oklahoma in their gas dropping below $2&#160;–&#160;workers are still discontent with the living/pay ratio. Wages have been notably stagnant in 2014 with a paltry 2.1 percent increase.</p>
<p>It has been theorized that the large number of unemployed in the nation enables employers to choose workers who agree to lower wages. The rotating door seems to equate to lethargic wages, although some expect the growth to increase soon.</p>
<p>While events such as these quickly raise political debates, it also adds to the current question of whether to raise the minimum wage. The&#160;Washington Post recently referenced the metropolitan with the highest percentage of annual job growth in the nation as well as the highest minimum wage in the nation— San Francisco— to suggest that raising the minimum wage may actually cause more job creation. The Washington Post suggests that providing more money to the working poor— the people most likely to take advantage of many of the new jobs recently made available— may increase the overall community’s level of sales by way of rent costs, food, child care and transportation.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Americans express an overall satisfaction with their jobs, but 76 percent of them told an Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll that they also felt as if they just “work to live.” Forty-seven percent of these workers also work nights and weekends and are likely to take advantage of the recently increased hours, and possibly take on another job as supplement this season.</p>
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<p /> | New job surge largest since 1999: Good or bad thing? | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/12/05/new-job-surge-largest-since-1999-good-or-bad-thing/ | 2014-12-05 | 3 |
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<p>Yet, while most New Mexicans are aware of the industry’s tremendous economic contributions, the industry’s commitment to conservation and sustainable development rarely gets the attention it deserves. In fact, the oil and gas industry has provided an incredible amount of volunteer natural and cultural resource conservation.</p>
<p>In 2003, a diverse group of stakeholders, including ranchers, oil companies, conservation groups and government agencies, formed a working group to help guide development activities within the shinnery oak-sand sagebrush landscape in southeastern New Mexico. There was a fear that two animals, the lesser prairie-chicken and dunes sagebrush lizard, would become federally protected and cause abundant restrictions on land use.</p>
<p>Working together for nearly three years, the group developed strategies for managing the landscape that would hopefully remove the need to list the animals as threatened or endangered. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) used the working group strategy to build a management plan, published in 2008, to guide land use and restoration of habitat for both species.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Later that year, BLM, along with the oil and gas industry and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, crafted a unique conservation tool patterned after the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for use on federal lands. This established consistency in management and conservation efforts across jurisdictions while providing certainty to industry participants should the species be listed.</p>
<p>By 2017, 73 ranchers and 56 oil companies had voluntarily enrolled, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1.9 million acres of lesser prairie-chicken and dunes sagebrush lizard habitat on BLM leases and another 1.2 million acres of private and state lands. Over $15 million has been raised and applied toward conservation measures and habitat restoration. The efforts led to the dunes sagebrush lizard not needing to be listed as endangered, and although the lesser prairie-chicken was originally listed, the N.M. population is responding very well to restoration efforts.</p>
<p>Conservation doesn’t just apply to land and wildlife. The BLM Pecos District processes hundreds of oil and gas applications to drill annually within the Permian Basin and is one of the busiest offices in the nation. Over time, development in some areas made it difficult to locate projects without harming archaeological sites. Many sites were being lost due to infrastructure maintenance and dune formation. They were also being ravaged by illegal artifact collecting. An alternative to “flag and avoid” the site was needed.</p>
<p>BLM and the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer built common ground among archaeologists, managers, tribes and industry resulting in a collaborative approach to balancing energy development and archaeology and establishing a pool of funds that could be used to protect and maintain sites. The fruits of that effort was an improved approach, embodied in an agreement that encompasses 1,700 square miles containing the most active oil and gas areas. Operating under the agreement is voluntary – if a company chooses the agreement procedures, it contributes the cost of the archaeological survey into a mitigation pool.</p>
<p>Since 2008, the oil industry has paid nearly $11 million into the pool. Without the Permian Basin agreement, those funds would have been spent on thousands of indiscriminate surveys. Instead, the pool has built a comprehensive field program, providing millions of dollars for archaeological research and studies that provide a foundation for understanding and managing the area’s archaeological resources.</p>
<p>As BLM, the oil and gas industry, land owners, organizations and other agencies have demonstrated over the past few decades, New Mexico works best when people and stakeholders collaborate to provide long-term economic vitality, conserve our beautiful working landscapes and rich culture, and restore healthy habitats. Working together, side-by-side, oil and gas, government and conservationists can continue to see that New Mexican’s enjoy the benefits of our lands and resources for generations to come.</p>
<p>Jesse Juen, who spent 33 years in public service, retired from the Bureau of Land Management as director for New Mexico, which included overseeing issues in New Mexico, Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. He lives in Albuquerque.</p>
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<p /> | Development and conservation go hand in hand in New Mexico | false | https://abqjournal.com/1095015/development-and-conservation-go-hand-in-hand-in-new-mexico.html | 2 |
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<p>HOUSTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from an East Texas man on death row for killing two men days apart during a crime trek across the state more than 14 years ago.</p>
<p>The high court made no comment Monday in its decision on the appeal from 32-year-old Clinton Lee Young.</p>
<p>The ruling upholds a federal appeals court's rejection last summer of arguments that Young had deficient legal help at his 2002 trial in Midland and that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence.</p>
<p>Young, from Ore City in Upshur County, was convicted and condemned for the November 2001 fatal shootings of Doyle Douglas in Longview and then Samuel Petrey a day or two later in a Midland oilfield after carjacking him in Eastland, about 53 miles east of Abilene.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Supreme Court refuses appeal from condemned killer of 2 | false | https://abqjournal.com/743697/supreme-court-refuses-appeal-from-condemned-killer-of-2.html | 2 |
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<p>Obama announcing Perez's nomination as labor secretary in 2013.Zhang Jun/Zuma</p>
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<p>Whether or not the Democrats lose their Senate majority on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will need to show some fight after the midterm elections. If the Republicans triumph, Obama must do something to rally his discouraged supporters and show he won’t spend his final two years as a truly lame-duck president. If the Dems manage to hold the Senate, the president, who has been pinned down by ISIS, Ebola, and other crises, will still be looking for a way to take back the political narrative and flex his political and policy muscle. Either way, he has a good option: nominate Tom Perez as attorney general.</p>
<p>The chatter in Washington is that Obama will announce his pick to replace the outgoing Eric Holder soon after Election Day, and Perez is on the White House’s short list. Based on his resumé, Perez, who is now secretary of labor, is a reasonable choice. He’s also one of the administration’s most stalwart progressives.</p>
<p>Before taking charge of the Department of Labor in July 2013, Perez was the assistant attorney general of the&#160;Justice Department’s civil rights division. The office had been eviscerated under George W. Bush, and Perez revitalized it by mounting voting rights cases and legal challenges to discrimination against gays and lesbians. During his tenure, <a href="" type="internal">the division opened a record-breaking number</a> of investigations into police abuse and forged wide-ranging agreements to clean up various police forces accused of misconduct, no small matter given recent national debates and controversy sparked by the Ferguson episode and the Trayvon Martin shooting.</p>
<p>As Mother Jones previously <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>:</p>
<p>Using its authority to compel institutional changes in local law enforcement agencies that have engaged in systemic violations of Americans’ constitutional rights, Perez’s office has helped to overhaul the police department of Puerto Rico and New Orleans police force. (New Orleans police officers shot several civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.) It has scrutinized the Miami and Seattle police departments and exposed the civil rights abuses of Arizona’s notorious anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio.</p>
<p>Perez has long demonstrated a commitment to civil rights and a robust role for government. As a federal prosecutor during George H.W. Bush’s administration, he won notable convictions of several neo-Nazis who had committed a string of murders designed to spark a race war. He later worked for Sen. Ted Kennedy before being elected to the Montgomery County council in Maryland and joining the board of an immigration rights group.</p>
<p>Since the financial meltdown, the Justice Department has faced criticism that it did not prosecute the Wall Streeters most responsible for triggering the catastrophic recession that hit in 2008. That wasn’t Perez’s call. But as chief of the civil rights division, he did target big banks by bringing enforcement actions against financial institutions for racial discrimination and for foreclosing on active-duty military service-members in violation of federal law. He created a fair lending unit within the division that went on to win a $335 million settlement against Bank of America and a $175 million settlement against Wells Fargo. These were the two largest fair-housing settlements in Justice Department history.</p>
<p>After being promoted to run the Labor Department, Perez also fired up that bureaucracy. As Politico recently <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/tom-perez-labor-112241.html" type="external">noted</a>,</p>
<p>It was one of the federal government’s sleepier outposts for most of the dozen years that preceded Perez’s arrival just over one year ago. But Labor has been newly energized under Perez. “Enforcement activity is up,” Alfred Robinson Jr., who was an acting wage and hour administrator for the Labor Department during the George W. Bush administration, noted earlier this month in a blog post. The department has also raised its public profile on issues like minimum wage and paid medical leave and lavished favorable attention on companies that give employees what Perez calls “voice.”</p>
<p>So the guy has the legal, policy, and management chops to be attorney general. And if Obama nominated him, the president would send a resounding message that he remained committed to a progressive agenda.</p>
<p>Now for the politics: Perez is the son of exiled Dominican immigrants. Hispanic members of Congress, immigration reform advocates, and labor organizations have <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/barack-obama-tom-perez-latinos-attorney-general-111955.html" type="external">called on</a> Obama to tap him for the nation’s chief law enforcement job. On Friday, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 39 leading Latino outfits, sent the president a letter requesting he name Perez. Does the president want to disappoint key constituencies at a time when he could use all the friends he can get? Other names reported to be on the AG short list—Solicitor General Don Verrilli and US attorneys Loretta Lynch and Preet Bharara—will likely not elicit much grassroots enthusiasm.</p>
<p>On the other side, would Republicans, who are already on the outs with Latino voters over their opposition to immigration reform, fight this high-profile nomination and risk further alienating a growing voting bloc? Perhaps.</p>
<p>Perez has been a favorite target of the right for years. While he did win confirmation relatively easily when he was nominated to be assistant attorney general, with a 72-22 vote in the Senate, some GOPers had <a href="" type="internal">tried to stop him</a>, citing Perez’s support of immigration reform and ( <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/surprise-the-rights-new-black-panther-obsession-turns-out-to-be-a-joke/2011/03/04/AFsvnp2B_blog.html" type="external">discredited</a>) allegations concerning a voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party.</p>
<p>But when Obama tapped Perez to be labor secretary, Republicans, as the White House expected, put up more resistance. Some in the party didn’t fancy Perez’s success revitalizing the civil rights division. And critics on the right <a href="" type="internal">claimed</a> he had cut a corrupt deal to prevent a Minnesota housing discrimination case from reaching the Supreme Court. The case was odd and complicated: landlords had used a federal fair-housing law to oppose an effort by the city of St. Paul to enforce basic housing standards. The property owners had argued that a crackdown on horrible conditions at low-income housing sites discriminated against minority tenants.</p>
<p>Civil rights advocates feared that if this weird case landed before the highest court, Chief Justice John Roberts and his fellow conservatives would use the occasion as an opportunity to gut the fair housing law. But city officials offered Perez a deal: they would drop their Supreme Court appeal, but only if the Justice Department declined to support a separate case filed against St. Paul by a whistleblower who alleged that the city had failed to use $180 million in federal funds meant to go to programs for lower-income residents. Perez consulted with the appropriate ethics and professional responsibility officials within the Justice Department—and the department official with authority over the whistleblower’s case—and he received green lights from all before accepting the offer. (The city of St. Paul was required to agree to meet the spending obligations in question in the future.) The maneuver helped preserve an important civil rights law—which many conservatives have long wanted to weaken—and a bunch of Republicans were hopping mad and accused Perez of bribery.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Senate Republicans tried for months to stymie Perez’s nomination as labor secretary. Eventually, he was put to a vote as part of a larger deal involving other appointments that had been delayed by GOP lawmakers. In July 2013, Perez was confirmed on a party-line vote of 54-46.</p>
<p>Should Obama appoint Perez, it’s a good bet that Senate Republicans would see red and kick off a holy brawl. (In a taste of things to come, a Wall Street Journal columnist <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/political-diary-tom-perez-has-no-regrets-1414607732" type="external">raised</a> the St. Paul case again just this week.) But win or lose, a fight could help Obama. It would signify that the president is serious about advancing voting rights, civil rights, immigration reform, and fair lending—and it could well yield the extra benefit of reinforcing the negative attitudes Latinos have toward the Republican Party.</p>
<p>Presidents are defined in part by their battles—especially the ones they choose to wage. Perez presents Obama a chance to take a stand that could bolster his party’s political prospects and boost his policy agenda, at a time when he surely has to do both.</p>
<p /> | Why Picking Tom Perez for Attorney General Would Be a Smart Move for Obama | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/tom-perez-attorney-general-obama/ | 2014-11-03 | 4 |
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<p>Tens of thousands of Verizon Communications Inc workers walked off the job on Wednesday in one of the largest U.S. strikes in recent years after contract talks hit an impasse.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The strike could affect service in Verizon's Fios Internet, telephone and TV services businesses across several U.S. East Coast states, including New York, Massachusetts and Virginia.</p>
<p>The strike was called by the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that jointly represent nearly 40,000 employees, such as customer services representatives and network technicians in Verizon's traditional wireline phone operations.</p>
<p>Workers protested at various Verizon locations along the East Coast. Verizon said it had trained thousands of non-union employees over the past year to ensure no disruption in services.</p>
<p>While the wireline unit represents Verizon's legacy business, it generated about 29 percent of the company's revenue in 2015 and less than 7 percent of operating income.</p>
<p>Verizon's Fios TV and Internet service is no longer growing and the company has been scaling back its landline network as it has shifts to the bread-and-butter wireless business and new efforts in mobile video and advertising.</p>
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<p>Verizon and the unions have been talking since last June over the company's plans to cut healthcare and pension-related benefits over a three-year period.</p>
<p>The workers have been without a contract since its agreement expired in August. Issues include healthcare, offshoring call center jobs, work rules and pensions.</p>
<p>“It’s regrettable that union leaders have called a strike, a move that hurts all of our employees,” Marc Reed, Verizon’s chief administrative officer, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Since last June, we’ve worked diligently to try and reach agreements that would be good for our employees, good for our customers and make the wireline business more successful now and in the future."</p>
<p>The last contract negotiations in 2011 also led to a strike. A new contract was reached after two weeks.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Verizon said it has been approached by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. In the last round, the FMCS mediated their contract dispute.</p>
<p>“The question of federal mediation is a distraction to the real problem: Verizon's corporate greed," the unions said in a statement, adding it has not yet contacted the FMCS.</p>
<p>Verizon's shares dipped 0.1 percent at $51.88.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Malathi Nayak and Rishika Sadam; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty; and Jeffrey Benkoe)</p> | Nearly 40,000 Verizon Employees Begin Strike | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/13/nearly-40000-verizon-employees-begin-strike.html | 2016-04-13 | 0 |
<p>Investing.com – Poland stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.</p>
<p>At the close in Warsaw, the added 0.36%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were Bank Polska Kasa Opieki SA (WA:), which rose 2.37% or 3.04 points to trade at 131.35 at the close. Meanwhile, Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN SA (WA:) added 2.13% or 2.54 points to end at 121.92 and Eurocash SA (WA:) was up 1.88% or 0.51 points to 27.61 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were Jastrzebska Spotka Weglowa SA (WA:), which fell 2.02% or 1.91 points to trade at 92.44 at the close. Grupa Azoty SA (WA:) declined 1.99% or 1.50 points to end at 73.99 and Kruk SA (WA:) was down 1.54% or 4.50 points to 287.50.</p>
<p>Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Warsaw Stock Exchange by 239 to 239 and 189 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.48% or 0.28 to $58.30 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 0.13% or 0.08 to hit $63.24 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 0.06% or 0.77 to trade at $1291.43 a troy ounce.</p>
<p>EUR/PLN was down 0.16% to 4.2066, while USD/PLN fell 0.38% to 3.5502.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 93.06.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Poland stocks higher at close of trade; WIG30 up 0.36% | false | https://newsline.com/poland-stocks-higher-at-close-of-trade-wig30-up-0-36/ | 2017-11-23 | 1 |
<p>Nov. 9 (UPI) — It didn’t take long for a new self-driving shuttle van in Las Vegas to get into an accident — but the driver of the other vehicle gets the blame, police said.</p>
<p>The 11-passenger <a href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/downtown/human-at-fault-in-accident-with-las-vegas-driverless-shuttle/" type="external">autonomous shuttle van</a> made by French company Navya entered service in Las Vegas Wednesday, traveling a half-mile route.</p>
<p>City officials said a delivery truck <a href="https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/nov/09/self-driving-shuttle-launches-in-downtown-las-vega/" type="external">backed into the van</a> while both were on a downtown street, causing minor damage to the driverless shuttle. The van came to a stop when it sensed that the truck was closing in on it.</p>
<p>The driver of the delivery truck was cited by police for illegal backing.</p>
<p>The electric-powered van, sponsored by Keolis Transit America and the Nevada AAA, began a 12-month pilot program on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“The shuttle did what it was supposed to do, in that its sensors registered the truck and the shuttle stopped to avoid the accident,” <a href="http://cityoflasvegas.tumblr.com/" type="external">a comment</a> on the city’s blog said. “Unfortunately the delivery truck did not stop and grazed the front fender of the shuttle.</p>
<p>“Had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has the accident would have been avoided.”</p>
<p>Navya <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/11/08/French-company-Navya-unveils-driverless-taxi-in-Paris/6931510150832/" type="external">is among several companies</a> that are testing autonomous vehicles in cities around the world. Wednesday, <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/11/08/UberAir-looking-at-self-flying-vehicles-by-2020/3111510155517/" type="external">Uber announced</a> it is working with NASA to create an air traffic control network for self-flying taxis it expects to be operational by 2020.</p> | Self-driving shuttle hit by truck just hours into Las Vegas debut | false | https://newsline.com/self-driving-shuttle-hit-by-truck-just-hours-into-las-vegas-debut/ | 2017-11-09 | 1 |
<p>Months into the state's budget stalemate, Republican legislative leaders are now willing to fund a pay raise for state employees.</p>
<p>Republicans and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan have been locked in battle since Hassan vetoed the Legislature's $11.3 billion, two-year budget in June. Hassan vetoed the budget, in part, because she said it included business tax cuts that weren't paid for and failed to fund the negotiated pay raise, which would've cost about $12 million.</p>
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<p>The government has been operating on a short-term spending plan at fiscal year 2015 levels. GOP leaders say the savings provide enough money for the pay raise. Their offer comes after Hassan put forth a compromise proposal that included business tax cuts but raised the cigarette tax and car registration fees.</p>
<p>She is rejecting Wednesday's offer.</p> | GOP leaders offer New Hampshire budget compromise that includes pay raise for state employees | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/08/19/gop-leaders-offer-new-hampshire-budget-compromise-that-includes-pay-raise-for.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p><a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/?attachment_id=12974" type="external" />The wildfires that are roaring through northern California are already “among the most destructive fire events in U.S. history”, and by the time it is all said and done this could be the worst wildfire season in the history of the state.&#160; So far, fires have scorched more than 250 square miles, and more than 3,500 homes and businesses have already been destroyed.&#160; The official death toll has risen to 21, but that is expected to rise dramatically because over 600 missing persons reports have been filed with authorities.&#160; The worst damage has been done in Napa and Sonoma counties, and you can see some deeply troubling photos of the devastation&#160; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/10/apocalyptic-images-from-the-deadly-fires-in-northern-california.html" type="external">here</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/napa-winery-burned-in-fires-2017-10/#all-that-remains-of-the-patio-are-pillars-8" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this crisis is far from over.&#160; In fact, the National Weather Service has just issued a pair of&#160; <a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/red-flag-warning-high-wind-gusts-forecast-for-wine-country-suffering-from-wildfires" type="external">“red flag warnings”</a>…</p>
<p>The weather forecast is not looking good for those living in wine country, and for those firefighters trying to get a handle on the 22 wildfires raging through Northern California, which broke out Sunday and are barely contained more than three days later.</p>
<p>The National Weather Service issued a&#160;red flag warning for the North and East bays starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday and midnight on Thursday respectively.</p>
<p>That means winds can gust from 20 mph to 50 mph in the higher elevation areas, fanning the flames down mountains and into the cities.</p>
<p>So as bad as things are at this moment, the truth is that they are going to get even worse over the next 24 hours.</p>
<p>And that is quite sobering to hear, because this is already one of&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/11/3-500-homes-businesses-destroyed-california-wine-country-blazes/753868001/" type="external">“the most destructive fire events in U.S. history”</a>…</p>
<p>The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said fire activity increased significantly, destroying more buildings and forcing&#160;more mandatory evacuations.&#160;The wind-whipped, fast moving cluster of blazes ranks among the most destructive fire events in U.S. history.</p>
<p>“This is a serious, critical, catastrophic event,” Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said. “It’s pure devastation, and it’s going to take a while to get out and comb through all this.”</p>
<p>Of course this crisis comes on the heels of&#160; <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/another-major-disaster-hits-the-u-s-a-massive-firestorm-is-burning-tens-of-thousands-of-acres-in-northern-california" type="external">several other major disasters</a>.&#160; In recent weeks our nation has had to deal with Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the Las Vegas shooting, and many have pointed out that the U.S. has not seen a series of disastrous events such as this in a very long time.</p>
<p>It would be hard to overstate the devastation that we have witnessed in northern California so far.&#160; In some areas, it literally looks like&#160; <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4969206/Californians-return-destruction-wildfires-kill-17.html" type="external">a war zone</a>…</p>
<p>‘It looks like a bombing run here,’&#160;said winemaker Joe Nielsen of Santa Rosa’s Donelan Family Wines, speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle.&#160;‘Just chimneys and burnt-out cars and cooked trees.’</p>
<p>What would you do if your home burned to the ground?</p>
<p>Perhaps you could use the insurance money to rebuild eventually, but what would you do in the meanwhile?</p>
<p>Everywhere you go in northern California the smell of smoke fills the air.&#160; At this point it is so bad that even San Francisco is reporting&#160; <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/10/smoke-advisory-from-wildfires-extended-another-day-in-bay-area/" type="external">“the worst air quality ever recorded”</a>…</p>
<p>“We are reporting the worst air quality ever recorded for smoke in many parts of the Bay Area,” said Tom Flannigan, spokesman for the&#160;Bay Area Air Quality Management District. “This is similar to what you see in Beijing China in bad air days there.”</p>
<p>Soot readings in many areas have reached levels considered very unhealthy or hazardous, air quality regulators said.</p>
<p>And the economic damage that is being done by these fires is going to be felt for many, many years to come.</p>
<p>As the&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/10/11/napa-fires-rage-wineries-face-singed-grapes-displaced-workers-and-costs-rebuilding/751267001/" type="external">quote below</a>&#160;explains, California accounts for approximately 85 percent of the wine production in the United States, and Napa and Sonoma counties are the heart of the wine industry in the state…</p>
<p>Wine industry experts say that even if a winery’s vineyards remain standing, they face steep challenges as their employees struggle with burned or damaged homes. The region counts wine and tourism as top employers, and many workers who pick grapes or work in hotels may be compelled to relocate after losing everything.</p>
<p>Napa and Sonoma counties are home to around 900 wineries (of 4,600 statewide), with most boutique businesses making higher-end wines. The two counties represent 13% of the state’s output. And the state itself supplies 85% of the nation’s wine production, making it the fourth-largest producer of wines after Italy, France and Spain.</p>
<p>Expect the price of wine to go up substantially in the months ahead, and this is going to be a huge hit for one of the most economically prosperous areas of the state.&#160; Many of the facilities that have been destroyed will never be rebuilt, and needless to say the tourism industry in northern California will not be the same for a very long time.</p>
<p>But the true extent of the devastation will not be known until the crisis is over, and it looks like the worst chapters may still be ahead.&#160; USA Today&#160; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/11/3-500-homes-businesses-destroyed-california-wine-country-blazes/753868001/" type="external">is reporting</a>&#160;that no rain is in the forecast, and strong winds are going to continue to push wildfires very rapidly across the region…</p>
<p>“No rainfall is forecast for ongoing fires in California,” the weather service said. “Strong winds behind the front will bring elevated-to-critical fire weather threats to active fires across northern California today into Thursday.”</p>
<p>Please pray for the people living in northern California.&#160; Normally, it is one of the most beautiful areas on the entire planet, but now it is literally being transformed into a complete and total nightmare.</p>
<p>For years, I have been writing about the alarming increase in the intensity of wildfires all over the country.&#160; One of the big reasons for this is the fact that the federal government is not properly managing the lands under their control, and so wildfires tend to burn more rapidly on federally-owned lands.&#160; It is time for the federal government to start turning over ownership of these lands to the states, and that is something that I plan to fight very hard to accomplish.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.michaelsnyderforcongress.com/" type="external">Michael Snyder</a>&#160;is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his&#160; <a href="https://www.michaelsnyderforcongress.com/contribute.html" type="external">official website</a>. His new book entitled&#160; <a href="http://amzn.to/2t5bx4A" type="external">“Living A Life That Really Matters”</a>&#160;is available in paperback and for the Kindle on&#160; <a href="http://amzn.to/2t5bx4A" type="external">Amazon.com</a>.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/red-flag-warning-these-california-wildfires-are-among-the-most-destructive-fire-events-in-us-history-and-they-are-about-to-get-even-worse" type="external">The Economic Collapse Blog</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Red Flag Warning: These California Wildfires Are ‘Among The Most Destructive Fire Events In US History’ And They Are About To Get Even Worse | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/12/red-flag-warning-these-california-wildfires-are-among-the-most-destructive-fire-events-in-us-history-and-they-are-about-to-get-even-worse/ | 2017-10-12 | 0 |
<p>Jeremy Lin may be a Houston Rocket, but the 23-year-old global superstar says his heart still lies in New York.</p>
<p>The Knicks let their most popular player in a decade go Tuesday afternoon after deciding not to match the $25.1 million offer sheet Lin signed with the Rockets, <a href="http://offthedribble.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/lin-says-he-would-have-preferred-to-stay-with-knicks/" type="external">The New York Times reported</a>.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120718/jeremy-lin-houston-rockets-new-point-guard" type="external">Jeremy Lin: Houston Rockets' new point guard</a></p>
<p>"Honestly, I preferred New York," Lin <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/nba/07/18/jeremy-lin-exclusive/index.html" type="external">told Sports Illustrated</a> on Wednesday. "But my main goal in free agency was to go to a team that had plans for me and wanted me. I wanted to have fun playing basketball. ... Now I'm definitely relieved."</p>
<p>The Taiwanese-American sensation said his tenure with the Knicks ended with a 30-second phone call from New York's general manager Tuesday night.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120331/jeremy-lin-out-nba-season-injury-knee" type="external">Jeremy Lin out for rest of regular NBA season with knee injury</a></p>
<p>"We wanted to keep you, but it couldn't work out. Tell your family I say hello, and good luck the rest of the way," Lin quoted General Manager Glen Grunwald as telling him.</p>
<p>The team's top executives aren't talking about the deal.</p>
<p>But the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jeremy-lin-houston-rockets-signs-point-ny-knicks-deciding-match-3-year-25m-offer-article-1.1116369" type="external">New York Daily News reported</a> that both money and emotions played a role. Knicks owner James Dolan apparently felt "betrayed" that the second-year point guard out of Harvard went back to the Rockets for more money, and the team was upset that he had hired a publicist without their consent.</p>
<p>For seven weeks this past winter, Lin's electrifying and often unselfish play created a fan and media frenzy. New York tabloids and others dubbed the phenomenon as "Linsanity," "Linspirational," "Linflation" and Lin as "Mr. Lincredible" and "Super Lintendo."</p>
<p>For all the fanfare, though, Lin only started 25 games -- averaging 18.2 points and 7.7 assists a game -- and a knee injury in late March sidelined him for the rest of the season.</p> | Jeremy Lin on leaving Knicks: "Honestly, I preferred New York" | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-07-18/jeremy-lin-leaving-knicks-honestly-i-preferred-new-york | 2012-07-18 | 3 |
<p>This week on <a href="" type="internal">Truthdig Radio</a> in association with <a href="http://kpfk.org" type="external">KPFK</a>: Truthdig’s editor on IS, al-Qaida and another mess in Mesopotamia. Also: Bill Blum on beheadings, Deborah L. Rhode on the women’s movement and Sangamithra Iyer on vital vegans.</p>
<p>(Trouble listening? <a href="" type="internal">Right-click to download the podcast here</a>.)</p>
<p>Guests, in order of appearance: Robert Scheer, Bill Blum, Deborah L. Rhode, Sangamithra Iyer.</p>
<p>{g_podcast_box}</p>
<p /> | Robert Scheer on Iraq War II | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/robert-scheer-on-iraq-war-ii/ | 2014-09-13 | 4 |
<p>Editor &amp; Publisher The court's decision not to take the case means that Judith Miller and Matt Cooper, who were ordered to jail for not naming their sources, will likely have to surrender some time soon, reports Joe Strupp. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/ap/20050627/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_cia_leak_4" type="external">Associated Press:</a> The reporters face up to 18 months in jail for refusing to reveal sources as part of an investigation into who divulged the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame. &gt; <a href="" type="internal">Read statements from Miller, NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (Misc.)</a> &gt; <a href="" type="internal">Time statement: We'll request a federal district court hearing (Misc.)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-na-sources26jun26.story" type="external">Many see the case as a harbinger of future journalistic freedoms (LAT)</a></p> | Supreme Court decides not to hear appeal of Miller, Cooper | false | https://poynter.org/news/supreme-court-decides-not-hear-appeal-miller-cooper | 2005-06-27 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Not the crazy, hateful right wing, not racist or disrupting public meetings, not demanding birth certificates … but the respectable right, holding high positions in academia and in every administration, Republican or Democrat, members of the highly esteemed Council on Foreign Relations. Here’s Joshua Kurlantzick, a “Fellow for Southeast Asia” at CFR, writing in the equally esteemed and respectable Washington Post about how — despite all the scare talk — it wouldn’t be so bad if Afghanistan actually turned into another Vietnam because “Vietnam and the United States have become close partners in Southeast Asia, exchanging official visits, building an important trading and strategic relationship and fostering goodwill between governments, businesses and people on both sides. … America did not win the war there, but over time it has won the peace. … American war veterans publicly made peace with their old adversaries … A program [to exchange graduate students and professors] could ensure that the next generation of Afghan leaders sees an image of the United States beyond that of the war.”[1] And so on.</p>
<p>On second thought, this is not so much right-wing jingoism as it is … uh … y’know … What’s the word? … Ah yes, “pointless”. Just what is the point? Germany and Israel are on excellent terms … therefore, what point can we make about the Holocaust?</p>
<p>As to America not winning the war in Vietnam, that’s worse than pointless. It’s wrong. Most people believe that the United States lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, by poisoning the earth, the water, the air, and the gene pool for generations, the US in fact achieved its primary purpose: it left Vietnam a basket case, preventing the rise of what might have been a good development option for Asia, an alternative to the capitalist model; for the same reason the United States has been at war with Cuba for 50 years, making sure that the Cuban alternative model doesn’t look as good as it would if left in peace.</p>
<p>And in all the years since the Vietnam War ended, the millions of Vietnamese suffering from diseases and deformities caused by US sprayings of the deadly chemical “Agent Orange” have received from the United States no medical care, no environmental remediation, no compensation, and no official apology. That’s exactly what the Afghans — their land and/or their bodies permeated with depleted uranium, unexploded cluster bombs, and a witch’s brew of other charming chemicals — have to look forward to in Kurlantzick’s Brave New World. “If the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan eventually resembles the one we now have with Vietnam, we should be overjoyed,” he writes. God Bless America.</p>
<p>One further thought about Afghanistan: The suggestion that the United States could, and should, solve its (self-created) dilemma by simply getting out of that god-forsaken place is dismissed out of hand by the American government and media; even some leftist critics of US policy are reluctant to embrace so bold a step — Who knows what horror may result? But when the Soviet Union was in the process of quitting Afghanistan (during the period of May 1988-February 1989) who in the West insisted that they remain? For any reason. No matter what the consequences of their withdrawal. The reason the Russians could easier leave than the Americans can now is that the Russians were not there for imperialist reasons, such as oil and gas pipelines. Similar to why the US can’t leave Iraq.</p>
<p>__________</p>
<p>[1]&#160; Washington Post, October 25, 2009</p> | The continuing desperate quest to find something good to say about US foreign policy | false | http://foreignpolicyjournal.com/2009/11/08/the-continuing-desperate-quest-to-find-something-good-to-say-about-us-foreign-policy/ | 2009-11-08 | 1 |
<p>New York City taxpayers will be paying $500,000 to the <a href="http://www.arabamericanny.org/" type="external">Arab American Association of New York</a> (AAANY), a registered non-profit run by leftist Muslim Linda Sarsour. Aligned with racial nationalist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and an ally of the city’s neo-Marxist mayor Bill de Blasio, Sarsour is openly anti-Zionist and a supporter of the Palestinian mission to destroy Jewish statehood in Israel.</p>
<p>The so-called Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York, via a “public-private partnership,” has <a href="http://www1.nyc.gov/site/fund/initiatives/connections-to-care.page" type="external">allocated</a> $30 million dollars to ostensibly increase availability of mental health services to “low-income” and “at-risk populations.”</p>
<p>Rather than directly grant money to individuals demonstrating financial need, the aforementioned “public-private partnership” will be dispensing money to non-profit groups - which appear to be mostly left-wing - lacking the necessary expertise to provide professional mental health services.</p>
<p>The “primary target population” of the AAANY is listed as “all” by an official communication from the city.</p>
<p>The AAANY <a href="http://www.arabamericanny.org/nyc-says-welcome-to-refugees/" type="external">advocates</a> for greater admission of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and other Muslim-majority countries and failed states. The left-wing organization also supports widespread amnesty for illegal immigrants. Also hyped is “ <a href="http://www.arabamericanny.org/islamophobia-intern-for-take-on-hate-campaign/" type="external">Islamophobia</a>” in America as if it is a real social force and phenomenon.</p>
<p>Sarsour previously worked for the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/giving-back-to-community/linda-sarsour" type="external">White House</a> in as a Muslim and Arab liaison for ethnic and religiously-driven politicking for President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Invited to speak at the neo-Marxist “Million Man March” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Sarsour <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igwtMJ_rqOw" type="external">joined</a> fellow racial nationalist and neo-Marxist Jeremiah Wright.</p>
<p>Republican pollster Frank Luntz had Sarsour present herself as something other than a professional left-wing Muslim agitator during a focus group segment produced for CBS, in which she <a href="" type="internal">declared</a> that Donald Trump’s political rhetoric was psychologically damaging to Muslim children.</p>
<p>Along with socialist Melissa Harris-Perry, Sarsour <a href="" type="internal">derided</a> The New York Times for showing a profile photo of one half of San Bernardino’s mass murdering couple Tashfeeen Malik, implying that depictions of the Islamic terrorist wearing a hijab would unjustifiably impugn Muslims.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | NYC Grants $500K To Fanatical Left-Wing Anti-American Islamic NGO | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4620/nyc-grants-500k-fanatical-left-wing-anti-american-robert-kraychik | 2016-04-03 | 0 |
<p>“Even if beaten, Germany will pride itself…no other people will be so inebriated by their defeat.”</p>
<p>–Anatole France, quoted by Patrick J. Buchanan in “Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War”.</p>
<p>“When an Englishman loses his prejudices, he is no longer an Englishman.”</p>
<p>–Nirad C. Chaudhuri, quoted by Time-Asia</p>
<p>So might it be added that should an American lose his sense of exceptionalism, he is no longer American.</p>
<p>The notion of exceptionalism has long been part of the American psyche, but it has been given vulgar expression only in recent decades, after self-absorption in full public gaze became not merely acceptable but expected.</p>
<p>Only someone steeped in specialness would have declared, as did Vice President George HW Bush after America had shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft by mistake, “I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don’t care what the facts are”. The same sense permeated Madeline Albright when she said that America was the one ‘indispensable’ nation. Leaders from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton to Barack Obama have echoed this sentiment with varying degrees of grating.</p>
<p>Of John McCain, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, little needs to be said save that they are the Knights Templar of this Order — who else could have stood before the cameras and told Russia that invading other countries is not the way to settle disputes in the 21st century?</p>
<p>And the obvious question that the press should have asked? Well may you ask. If self-criticism is a dying art in American politics, reticence has long exited the news business. “The Best Political Team in Television”, Wolf Blitzer keeps repeating every few minutes. Maybe so, Wolf, one wants to tell him, but isn’t that something for others to say? The national mourning for Tim Russert broke all bounds of modesty: clearly old dictums of the journalist not becoming the news did not operate in America — here the press too was Exceptional.</p>
<p>Funnily enough, America was always viewed as exceptional by the world, long before the invidious boasts by its politicians on TV — it is rare that a show goes by without someone saying, “We have the best fighting force in the history of mankind”, or “American workers can out-produce anyone in the world”, or “The greatest country on the face of the earth”. As to the world, perhaps it is best to echo a character from the Jeffersons, “What can anyone say about you, Mr. Jefferson, that you ain’t said about yourself already?”</p>
<p>What has all this to do with 9-11? A lot, in my view. It is one thing to encourage a child and make him believe he is special and quite another to instill in him the false notion that success will be his no matter what he does. Americans have had it dinned into their heads that no matter what they do, things will be ok, because this is America. Among others, Benjamin Franklin warned against complacency long ago with his famous, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”</p>
<p>America’s exceptional quality, to paraphrase Indira Gandhi, was that “she did ordinary things extraordinarily well”. Disasters happen, of course, even in the best of times, and under the greatest of leaders. But breakdowns are seldom caused by one great blunder. Instead, they are more often the result of a bad environment, an ethos where many small wrongs go unchecked.</p>
<p>Enough has been written about the fateful day when so many things could have prevented, or at least limited, the damage. But the real damage began when 9-11 ended. Where any other country would have sought to demand accountability for such a calamity, in our exceptional land, not one single head rolled. The normal process of instituting an inquiry was postponed, we had to fight to get a commission established: Exceptionalism at work again.</p>
<p>In the most iconic example of Exceptionalism of all, it has become customary to mark each anniversary of September 11 by noting how valiant President Bush and his colleagues have been in keeping the country safe ever since. The logic reminds me of a joke sent around by a friend: statistics show that 10% of all accidents are caused by drunk drivers, it follows therefore that driving sober causes 90% of all accidents.</p>
<p>This sense of hubris – Exceptionalism, if you will – has informed everything that has followed: a potential multi-trillion dollar war cost, billions in deficits of every variety, broker borders, a collapsing health care system and the shredding of the one thing that is truly exceptional about America – its Constitution. All unchallenged because the exceptional nation accepts exceptional unaccountability.</p>
<p>Where do we go from here? There is some encouraging news. While the slobbering sultans of self-absorption were neck-deep in lipstick-land yesterday, there was a meeting of the four small party candidates, brought together by Ron Paul. They have agreed on a common four-point program, mainly to restore Constitutional rule. They should sink their other differences and run a united campaign.</p>
<p>Talking of self-absorption, this writer is gratified that Ron Paul, who brought the four together, followed this plea offered in a column a few months back (see Restoration Boulevard):</p>
<p>“I have a suggestion: Ron Paul and Ralph Nader should unite to put together a platform with an single-point agenda: to restore the Constitution and the Rule of Law. All else can follow.”</p>
<p>NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN is a writer living on the West Coast. He can be reached at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Flight Not Taken | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/09/13/the-flight-not-taken/ | 2008-09-13 | 4 |
<p>Relations were already strained between Israel and Turkey, owing in large part to the Israeli-Palestinian clash in Gaza last winter, and then came this week’s diplomatic drama caused by a Turkish TV show that depicted Israeli soldiers shooting children in Gaza. Jamal Dajani gauges the fallout on this week’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report” from Link TV. –KA</p>
<p>Link TV:</p>
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<p /> | Israel-Turkey: No TV Drama | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/israel-turkey-no-tv-drama/ | 2009-10-17 | 4 |
<p>In <a href="http://blog.instagram.com/post/69877035043/top-locations-2013" type="external">shopping malls</a> and <a href="" type="internal">remote hillside farms</a>, in the hands of <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/best-photos-of-the-obamas-taking-photos.html" type="external">millennials</a> and their <a href="http://instagram.com/p/c2EyYAvZFa/" type="external">moms</a>, from the White House to the Vatican, selfies made it big this year.</p>
<p>In November, the Oxford Dictionaries <a href="http://www.today.com/news/oxford-dictionaries-names-selfie-word-year-2D11603600" type="external">selected "selfie" as the word of the year</a>, after formally including the term in their online collection in August. The institution even <a href="http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-2013/" type="external">generously noted a few of the selfie's derivatives</a>: "helfie (a picture of one's hair) and belfie (a picture of one's posterior); a particular activity – welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture –shelfie and bookshelfie."</p>
<p>When people aren't snapping photos of their food, or fashion, they're composing #selfies, Instagram, the world's unofficial source of digital self portraits, <a href="" type="internal">revealed in November</a>. Even Google's been keeping track: and the <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=selfie#q=selfie&amp;cmpt=q" type="external">selfie has never been more popular</a>.</p>
<p>The art of self-portraiture has been around for centuries, and selfies on social media have been around since the time of MySpace. But in the last two years, rising to popularity via the social media accounts of Rihanna, Justin Beiber, Tyra, Madonna, Gaga and Kim Kardashian — pro selfie takers — selfies have made themselves at home in our hearts, in our social feeds, and <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-year-selfies-came-to-video-games" type="external">even in our video games</a>.</p>
<p>Actor and writer James Franco recently offered one interpretation of the celebrity selfie.</p>
<p>"I just look at the number of likes," Franco <a href="http://www.today.com/video/today/53275625#53275625" type="external">told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie</a>. If he posts a picture of a book he's reading, he might get a few likes, but "If I put a stupid selfie, it's ten times that number." Bottom line: "If I try to get attention for something else, I put a selfie." he said.</p>
<p>The selfie made a solid showing this year, but there's no doubt that a few moments last year fed its rise to domination. Among the better ones, the Curiosity Rover <a href="" type="internal">sent back a composite self portrait</a> all the way from Mars, and, floating about by the ISS, astronaut Aki Hoshide added to <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060719.html" type="external">years of astronaut selfies</a> when <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120918.html" type="external">he snapped a quick self-portrait in space</a>.</p>
<p>This year, world leaders have eagerly boarded the bandwagon.</p>
<p>In June, backstage at the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton posed for a selfie, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/345605996615442432" type="external">which the younger Clinton then tweeted</a>.</p>
<p>At the Vatican in August, <a href="" type="internal">Pope Frances huddled with a group of tweens</a> for a photo inside Saint Peter's Basilica, proving that when it comes to aiming a selfie, even the Pope needs practice.</p>
<p>Three world leaders brought their heads together this December and caused a media stir when they <a href="http://www.today.com/news/president-obama-poses-selfie-mandela-service-2D11722405" type="external">took a selfie at Nelson Mandela's memorial service</a> in Soweto, near Johannesburg. Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt whipped out what looks like an iPhone 5 to take a selfie with the two men sitting beside her: President Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, to inadvertently join a somewhat unsettling global phenomenon now recognized as the " <a href="http://selfiesatfunerals.tumblr.com/press" type="external">funeral selfie</a>."</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/heyfeifer" type="external">Jason Feifer</a>, Fast Company senior editor and founder of the "Selfies at Funerals" Tumblr, wrote about the phenomenon <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/11/obama-funeral-selfie-tumblr-mandela-teens" type="external">in an op-ed for Britain's The Guardian newspaper</a>. "This isn't the nature of kids today; it's just the nature of kids," he explained. "When a teen tweets out a funeral selfie, their friends don't castigate them. They understand that their friend, in their own way, is expressing an emotion they may not have words for. It's a visual language that older people — even those like me, in their 30s — simply don't speak."</p>
<p>Though selfie trends and impacts have yet to be seriously studied using statistical techniques, some media scholars have been pondering their place in our conversations.</p>
<p>"A photograph offers some sort of evidence that something has happened in way that's more credible," <a href="http://experts.news.wisc.edu/experts/1220" type="external">Catalina Toma</a>, a communications researcher at the University of Wisconsin told NBC News.</p>
<p>Has 2013 been the year of the selfie? She is not sure, but "it is for sure a phenomenon."</p>
<p>"In general, we're seeing images move from being a source of pure documentation to being a mechanism of communication," said <a href="http://www.danah.org/" type="external">danah boyd</a>, a researcher at Microsoft Research and author of the upcoming book "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens." "In other words, why send a text when you can send a pic?" she wrote to NBC News in an email.</p>
<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/" type="external">Sherry Turkle</a>, a psychologist and MIT professor of social studies of science and technology, believes that our appreciation of selfies has matured. "The past year, people are becoming much more expectant of seeing the selfie," <a href="http://www.today.com/tech/its-all-about-me-why-we-love-selfies-6C10679994" type="external">she previously told NBC News</a>. "There's been a definite shift ... now people no longer think it's narcissistic to get that picture."</p>
<p>Nidhi Subbaraman writes about science and technology. You can follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nidhisubs" type="external">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.twitter.com/nidhisubs" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+NidhiSubbaraman/about" type="external">Google+</a>.</p> | Pope, President, Pop Stars: 2013, Year of the Selfie | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/year-in-review-2013/pope-president-pop-stars-2013-year-selfie-n846 | 2014-01-02 | 3 |
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<p>MILWAUKEE — Bone-chilling cold gripped much of the central U.S. as 2018 began Monday, breaking century-old records, icing over some New Year’s celebrations and leading to at least two deaths attributed to exposure to the elements.</p>
<p>The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories covering a vast area from South Texas to Canada and from Montana and Wyoming through New England. Dangerously low temperatures enveloped much of the Midwest, yet didn’t deter hundreds of people from ringing in the new year by jumping into Lake Michigan.</p>
<p>Despite sub-freezing temperatures and a warning of potential hypothermia from the local fire chief, throngs of people took part in the annual tradition in Milwaukee, warming up later with chili or heat from a beach fire pit.</p>
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<p>A similar event was canceled from the Chicago lakefront, where the temperature dipped below zero as thick white steam rose from the lake Monday morning. Organizers said the arctic blast made jumping into the lake too dangerous.</p>
<p>“I’m not happy about it. But I was down by the lake and, gosh, if you were dropped in there, it’d take you 10 minutes to get out,” Jeff Coggins, who helped organize the thwarted Chicago event, told WBBM-TV.</p>
<p>Instead, would-be Chicago plungers had their pictures taken while jumping on the frozen beach — in their swimsuits.</p>
<p>Temperatures plunged below zero elsewhere in the Midwest, including in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where the mercury dropped to a record-breaking minus 32 (-36 Celsius). The previous New Year’s Day record had stood for 99 years.</p>
<p>In Nebraska, temperatures hit 15 below zero (-26 Celsius) before midnight Sunday in Omaha, breaking a record low dating to 1884. Omaha officials cited the forecast in postponing the 18th annual New Year’s Eve Fireworks Spectacular that draws around 30,000 people.</p>
<p>It was colder in Des Moines, Iowa, where city officials closed a downtown outdoor ice skating plaza and said it wouldn’t reopen until the city emerged from sub-zero temperatures. The temperature hit 20 below zero (-29 Celsius) early Monday, with the wind chill dipping to negative 31 degrees (-35 Celsius).</p>
<p>Indianapolis Public Schools canceled classes for Tuesday on all its campuses due to the predicted sub-zero temperatures. Students had been scheduled to return from winter break.</p>
<p>In northeastern Montana, the wind chill readings dipped as low as minus 58 (-50 Celsius). And in Duluth, Minnesota, a city known for its bitter cold winters, the wind chill dipped to 36 below zero (-38 Celsius).</p>
<p>Plunging overnight temperatures in Texas brought rare snow flurries as far south as Austin, and accidents racked up on icy roads across the state. In the central Texas city of Abilene, the local police chief said more than three dozen vehicle crashes were reported in 24 hours.</p>
<p>It’s even cold in the Deep South, a region more accustomed to brief bursts of arctic air than night after night below zero. Frozen pipes and dead car batteries were concerns from Louisiana to Georgia as overnight temperatures in the teens were predicted across the region by Monday night.</p>
<p>The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said two bodies found Sunday showed signs of hypothermia. They included a man in his 50s found on the ground in an alley and a 34-year-old man. Police believe the cold weather also may have been a factor in the death of a man in Bismarck, North Dakota, whose body was found near a river.</p> | 2018 starts with record cold in parts of the Midwest | false | https://abqjournal.com/1113372/2018-starts-with-record-cold-in-parts-of-the-midwest.html | 2018-01-01 | 2 |
<p>Washington Post "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" won for its coverage of the 2004 elections, which the Peabody judges said "provided the kind of cathartic satire that deflates pomposity on an equal-opportunity basis." Dan Rather received his Peabody for the "60 Minutes II" report about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. A total of <a href="http://www.peabody.uga.edu/news/pressrelease.asp?ID=118" type="external">32 prizes</a> were awarded Monday. &gt; <a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA601784.html?display=Breaking+News&amp;referral=SUPP" type="external">Rather's acceptance speech didn't mention CBS News' Heyward (B&amp;C)</a></p> | Stewart, Rather among those honored at Peabody Awards | false | https://poynter.org/news/stewart-rather-among-those-honored-peabody-awards | 2005-05-17 | 2 |
<p>The anti-Wall Street protest has often resembled a street party. In occupied Liberty Park, people banged on drums, <a href="" type="internal">danced</a>, performed mime, even <a href="" type="internal">dangled donuts</a> to bait cops. Their mood has been merry, which is remarkable considering that they’ve been <a href="" type="internal">sleeping out in the open</a>, on hard ground, in a compact park, without even tents over them. Food and money have been limited, and sanitation a logistical nuisance, yet even a cloudburst in the middle of the night, drenching everyone, was greeted with cheers. A sign, “ <a href="" type="internal">THE REVOLUTION WILL BE PLAYFUL</a>.”</p>
<p>Critics have slandered these protesters as idle and frivolous, as muddled crybabies who would flee from any job application, not that anyone’s hiring, by the way. This rally, then, is just a noisy blight on America’s crooked economic engine. With a first dusting of snow, these anarchists, hippies, art students, bums and trust fund kids would all go home to mommy. Third-term billionaire mayor Bloomberg—who says money can’t prolong life?—even moaned that this protest was targeting people just “struggling to make ends meet,” and he was sorta right, of course, because there’s no way Wall Street’s end can meet any of our ends.</p>
<p>When noticed at all, the protesters’ frequent meetings have often been dismissed as pointless and confused. Surely nothing will come of their callow and cumbersome deliberations. Their decisions can’t and won’t matter. America’s life and death matters are decided by cynical, rich old guys in suits, not bongo stroking freaks, so debate all you want, but there’s no way your jejune ideas can inflect, however slightly, this monster bank-dominated, Federal Reserve-run, two war party system.</p>
<p>With the just released <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/" type="external">The 99% Declaration</a>, our ruling class has been issued an ultimatum, however. The anti-Wall Street protesters will convene a National General Assembly in Philadelphia from July 4th, 2012 until October of 2012, resulting in a “PETITION OF GRIEVANCES to be submitted to all members of Congress, The Supreme Court and President and each of the political candidates running in the nationwide Congressional and Presidential election in November 2012.” If these grievances are not redressed within one year, the 99% “will organize a third independent political party to run candidates in the 2014 mid-term elections.”</p>
<p>This is the best news I’ve heard in a while. Finally, some much needed oxygen in this suffocating political dungeon. These mostly young protesters have stayed clear of any current politician. Showing more maturity than many of their elders, they trust neither Democrats nor Republicans. They are not suckered by Obama nor distracted by Clinton’s Usher and Lady Gaga circus. It’s incredible, isn’t it, that the man who enacted NAFTA and repealed the Glass-Steagall act can now go on television to lament that “the American Dream has been under assault”?</p>
<p>With their rejection of this walled up and dead end system, the protesters can bring to mind Bartleby, with his “I’d prefer not to,” but this movement is not just a refusal to be co-opted into a murderous and life-sapping existence. Last week, America entered yet another war, but who’s keeping track any longer? A Yahoo! headline, “Mysteries of Clinton’s Big Concert Solved,” and the Cardinals are amazing, aren’t they?</p>
<p>A third, viable political party is long overdue. Though the moneyed interest will surely bare its fangs before it gives up even a sturgeon egg from its privileged table, it is high time we break apart this mad vehicle before it hurls us all into the abyss.</p>
<p>Linh Dinh&#160;is the author of two books of stories, five of poems, and a just released novel,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Love Like Hate</a>. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog,&#160; <a href="http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/" type="external">State of the Union</a>.</p>
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<p>One of the Greatest Descriptions of Farm Work Ever Written— Don’t miss Frank Bardacke’s marvelous account from the California fields. ALSO Linn Washington Jr. on the “Black Backlash Against Obama.”</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The Beginning is Near | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/10/17/the-beginning-is-near/ | 2011-10-17 | 4 |
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<p>The term “right to work” was chosen by clever PR people to confuse the public about its true meaning.</p>
<p>It sounds like something that helps workers. It isn’t. It’s nothing more than an intrusive government tactic to limit the power of unions.</p>
<p>The law already says no one in New Mexico can be required to join a union. It also says unions must represent every worker, whether they join or not.</p>
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<p>Unions may charge a fee to the workers they’re forced to represent – but only if the employer and employees agree.</p>
<p>Right-to-work laws prevent employers and employees from making that decision.</p>
<p>The Chamber of Commerce doesn’t offer benefits to businesses that don’t pay dues. Unions shouldn’t have to, either.</p>
<p>Legislation like this is being promoted all over the country by a well-coordinated network of billionaires and corporate special interest groups. They want to keep more profit for themselves.</p>
<p>These are the same groups that are downsizing, shipping jobs overseas and hiding profits offshore to avoid paying the taxes that families and small businesses have to pay.</p>
<p>At a time when middle-class families are struggling, we can’t afford these anti-worker laws.</p>
<p>Studies show that in right-to-work states, like Mississippi and Indiana, workers earn $5,000 less a year. Six of the 10 states with the highest unemployment have these anti-worker policies.</p>
<p>The right-to-work proposal in New Mexico is a distraction that divides New Mexicans. The Legislature shouldn’t waste time on this issue.</p>
<p>Instead, our leaders should be trying to improve the economy, create jobs and equip our schools with the tools to prepare our children for 21st century jobs.</p>
<p /> | Legislation won’t help workers | false | https://abqjournal.com/543950/legislation-wont-help-workers.html | 2 |
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<p>Eleven people were hurt, one critically.</p>
<p>The attacker was identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan. He was born in Somalia and was a legal permanent U.S. resident, according to a U.S. official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The FBI joined the investigation.</p>
<p>The details emerged after a morning of conflicting reports and confusion, created in part by a series of tweets from the university warning there was an “active shooter” on campus and students should “Run Hide Fight.” The warning was prompted by what turned out to be police gunfire.</p>
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<p>Police vehicles and ambulances converged on the 60,000-student campus, and authorities blocked off roads. Students barricaded themselves inside offices and classrooms, piling chairs and desks in front of doors, before getting the all-clear an hour and a half later.</p>
<p>Ohio State University police Chief Craig Stone said the assailant deliberately drove his small Honda over a curb outside an engineering classroom building and then began knifing people. A campus officer nearby because of a gas leak arrived on the scene and shot the driver in less than a minute, Stone said.</p>
<p>Angshuman Kapil, a graduate student, was outside Watts Hall when the car barreled onto the sidewalk.</p>
<p>“It just hit everybody who was in front,” he said. “After that everybody was shouting, ‘Run! Run! Run!'”</p>
<p>Student Martin Schneider said he heard the car’s engine revving.</p>
<p>“I thought it was an accident initially until I saw the guy come out with a knife,” Schneider said, adding the man didn’t say anything when he got out.</p>
<p>Most of the injured were hurt by the car, and at least two were stabbed. One had a fractured skull.</p>
<p>Columbus police Chief Kim Jacobs, asked whether authorities were considering the possibility it was a terrorist act, said: “I think we have to consider that it is.”</p>
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<p>Republican Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the episode “a tragic attack” and said “our prayers are with them all.”</p>
<p>U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the bloodshed “bears all of the hallmarks of a terror attack carried out by someone who may have been self-radicalized.”</p>
<p>“Here in the United States, our most immediate threat still comes from lone attackers that are not only capable of unleashing great harm but are also extremely difficult, and in some cases, virtually impossible to identify or interdict,” he said.</p>
<p>Ohio State’s student newspaper, The Lantern, ran an interview in August with a student named Abdul Razak Artan, who identified himself as a Muslim and a third-year logistics management student who’d transferred from Columbus State in the fall.</p>
<p>He said he was looking for a place to pray openly and worried how he would be received.</p>
<p>“I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what media portrays me to be,” he told the newspaper. “If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen. But I don’t blame them. It’s the media that put that picture in their heads.”</p>
<p>In recent months, federal law enforcement officials have raised concerns about online extremist propaganda encouraging knife and car attacks, easier to pull off than bombings.</p>
<p>The Islamic State group has urged sympathizers online to carry out lone-wolf attacks in their home countries with whatever weapons are available to them.</p>
<p>In September, a 20-year-old Somali-American stabbed 10 people at a St. Cloud, Minnesota, shopping mall before being shot to death by an off-duty officer. Authorities said he asked some of his victims if they were Muslim. In the past few years, London and other cities also have seen knife attacks blamed on extremists.</p>
<p>Artan was not known to the FBI prior to Monday’s attack, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Neighbors said Artan was always polite and attended daily prayer services at a mosque.</p>
<p>Leaders of Muslim organizations and mosques in the Columbus area condemned Monday’s attack while cautioning people against jumping to conclusions or blaming a religion or an ethnicity.</p>
<p>“It is particularly heartbreaking to see this random act of violence come to this community I hold so dear,” said Ohio State graduate Nicole Ghazi, who is active in Islamic organizations.</p>
<p>Surveillance photos showed Artan in the car by himself just before the attack, but investigators are looking into whether anyone else was involved, police said.</p>
<p>The bloodshed came as students were returning to classes following the Thanksgiving break and Ohio State’s football victory over rival Michigan, which brought more than 100,000 fans to campus on Saturday.</p>
<p>“There were several moments of chaos,” said Rachel LeMaster, who works in the engineering college. “We barricaded ourselves like we’re supposed to since it was right outside our door and just hunkered down.”</p>
<p>LeMaster said she and others were eventually led outside the building and she saw a body on the ground.</p>
<p>Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>The officer who killed the attacker was Alan Horujko, a member of the force for just under two years. Department of Public Safety Director Monica Moll said Horujko had done a “fabulous job.”</p>
<p>The initial tweet from Ohio State emergency officials went out around 10 a.m. and said: “Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College.” University President Michael Drake said the warning was issued after shots were heard on campus.</p>
<p>“Run, hide, fight” is standard protocol for active-shooter situations. It means: Run away if possible; get out of view; or try to disrupt or incapacitate the shooter if your life is in imminent danger.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell and Eric Tucker in Washington, Collin Binkley in Boston and Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed to this story.</p> | Terrorism suspected in car-and-knife attack at Ohio State | false | https://abqjournal.com/897024/eight-people-hospitalized-after-ohio-state-reports-active-shooter-on-campus.html | 2016-11-28 | 2 |
<p>London index, however, marks a monthly loss</p>
<p>U.K. stocks ended Friday firmly higher, with pound weakness providing a runway for the blue-chips gauge, which also booked a weekly and quarterly advance.</p>
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<p>The benchmark FTSE 100 index picked up 0.7% at 7,372.76, marking its best daily gain since Sept. 1. For the week, the London index finished up 0.9%. For the month, the benchmark ended off 0.8%, but notched a 0.8% quarterly gain.</p>
<p>The FTSE extended gains Friday as the pound fell below $1.34 after second-quarter gross domestic product was lowered on an annual basis. The Office for National Statistics said its final reading of year-over-year growth came in at 1.5%, down from a previous estimate of 1.7%. Sterling traded at $1.3381 in the afternoon, down from $1.3441 late Thursday in New York.</p>
<p>A stronger pound can hurt shares of multinational companies on the FTSE 100, as revenue that the companies make overseas can be reduced when converted back to sterling.</p>
<p>Among multinationals whose shares were making their way higher Friday was luxury-goods seller Burberry Group PLC (BRBY.LN)(BRBY.LN) as it tacked on 1.6%, Unilever (ULVR.LN) (ULVR.LN) added 1.5% and medical-devices maker Smith &amp; Nephew PLC (SN.LN) bulked up 1.1%.</p>
<p>The pound was on track for a 0.9% weekly slide against the dollar, trimming its monthly gain to around 3.6%. The September gain was largely due to signals from the Bank of England that it's eyeing a potential interest rate increase in coming months. Pound strength in turn has pulled the FTSE 100 toward a September loss of 0.7%, the first monthly loss since June.</p>
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<p>Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney on Friday reiterated on BBC Radio that Britons can expect somewhat of an increase in rates if the economy continues on its current course.</p>
<p>"The continued explicit guidance from the BOE shows that is it on the cusp of hiking and wants to avoid a potentially disorderly adjustment in markets and in the real economy," said Kallum Pickering, senior U.K. economist at Berenberg, in a note.</p>
<p>"After the first hike in November 2017, we continue to expect a very gradual tightening thereafter to sustainably return inflation to its 2% target, with four hikes in total between now and the end of 2019."</p>
<p>(https://twitter.com/BBCr4today/status/913681563090595840)</p>
<p>Housing shares: The Nationwide Building Society said U.K. house prices edged up 0.2% in September (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-house-prices-stable-but-drop-in-london-2017-09-29) after a decline in August, but house prices in London fell 0.6% on the year, the annual fall in eight years.</p>
<p>Shares of home builders were still able to move up Friday. Persimmon PLC (PSN.LN) put on 2.1%, Taylor Wimpey PLC (TW.LN) closed up 1.9% higher and Barratt Developments PLC (BDEV.LN) rose 1.2%.</p>
<p>In other developments Friday, shares of Aviva PLC (AV.LN) climbed 1% after the insurer said it is selling its joint venture in Italy, Avipop Assicurazioni SpA, for 265 million euros ($311.8 million) (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/aviva-sells-italian-joint-venture-for-265-million-2017-09-29) to Banco BPM SpA (BAMI.MI).</p>
<p>Off the main benchmark, shares of Carillion PLC (CLLN.LN) plunged more than 20% after the construction-services company swung to a half-year loss of GBP1.15 billion ($1.54 billion) and cut its full-year sales outlook. It now expects total revenue of GBP4.6 billion to GBP4.8 billion, compared with a previous estimate of GBP4.8 billion to GBP5.0 billion.</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 29, 2017 12:36 ET (16:36 GMT)</p> | LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Ends Day, Quarter Higher As Pound Weakens | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/29/london-markets-ftse-100-ends-day-quarter-higher-as-pound-weakens.html | 2017-09-29 | 0 |
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<p>From left, Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe, Sasha Roiz as Captain Renard, David Giuntoli as Nick Burkhardt in a scene from the NBC show, “Grimm.” (Courtesy NBC/Scott Green)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Silas Weir Mitchell is starting to feel comfortable.</p>
<p>After three seasons of playing Monroe on NBC’s supernatural drama, “Grimm” it feels about time.</p>
<p>“I’ve been in this business for a long time,” he says. “This is the first show I’ve been on that I’ve been a major character. The first two years were good and now we’re feeling like I’m in the groove.”</p>
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<p>“Grimm” follows a descendant of the Grimm line, Nick Burkhart, played by David Giuntoli, as he deals with being a cop and trying not to expose his secret as a Grimm.</p>
<p>Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe. (Courtesy of NBC/Michael Muller)</p>
<p>The show began featuring tales from “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” and over the past two seasons the show has delved into more regional types of folklore. In season two, the series had an episode about “La Llorona” and featured a detective who had been following the case while working in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>This season, the show focused on “El Cucuy” or the “boogeyman.”</p>
<p>“The storylines are starting to become more international,” he says. “I think it’s great because the show is expanding on its audience worldwide. It’s becoming a hit in more places and I couldn’t be happier.”</p>
<p>Mitchell finds playing Monroe intriguing because of his storyline.</p>
<p>Monroe is a Wieder Blutbad who used to live a fairly solitary, reformed life among humans. Monroe helps Detective Nick Burkhardt navigate the Wesen world.</p>
<p>The pair form an unlikely friendship as result of Burkhardt oftentimes calling upon Monroe for help.</p>
<p>Most times Monroe is consulted for his knowledge pertaining to creatures of the Wesen world, usually whenever the information offered by the books and diaries inside</p>
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<p>Burkhardt has come to rely on Monroe’s support in various capacities: Monroe has helped from tracking suspects to protection to clandestine investigative methods. He met his girlfriend Rosalee whilst helping Burkhardt on a case.</p>
<p>“The relationship between Monroe and Nick has really grown,” Mitchell says. “Each character has a great story line and the characters all work together in some way. At the beginning of the series David was always working because he was in every scene. I think now the writers have developed enough of the story that he can take a little break.”</p>
<p>In the series, Monroe has found a girlfriend in Rosalee and the two have moved in together.</p>
<p>Mitchell says it’s going to be interesting to see how the relationship blooms between the two.</p>
<p>“I get to grow as Monroe grows,” he says.</p>
<p>Mitchell says he’s also like seeing the tales evolve.</p>
<p>From starting with stories like “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” the show has branched out to regional folklore.</p>
<p>“Every culture has its share of fairy tales and children’s stories,” he says. “Having these different cultural references really helps expand our audience. We have people on the show speaking French and one of the story lines is going with this global power struggle.”</p>
<p>While “Grimm” has been the longest that Mitchell has worked as one character, it’s not his first big show.</p>
<p>In “Prison Break,” during its four season run, Mitchell played Charles “Haywire” Patoshik.</p>
<p>“Haywire was going to be a two-episode arc,” he says. “Then during the show he got clued into what was happening and the writers liked that dynamic. Haywire was a crazy person and he just added an entirely new dynamic to the show.”</p>
<p>From left, Bree Turner as Rosalee Calvert, Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe in a scene from “Grimm.” (Courtesy of NBC/Scott Green)</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | ‘Grimm’ is a challenge for Silas Weir Mitchell | false | https://abqjournal.com/319728/grimm-is-a-challenge-for-silas-weir-mitchell.html | 2 |
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<p>NEW YORK — Coca-Cola says it will start publishing information about its health and nutrition efforts after it was criticized for funding a group many felt touted the company’s message.</p>
<p>The decision comes after The New York Times story that detailed how Coca-Cola gave $1.5 million to help start the Global Energy Balance Network. The story said the group promotes the idea that people are overly fixated on how much they’re eating, rather than how much they are exercising.</p>
<p>On Wednesday evening, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said in an editorial published in The Wall Street Journal that the company plans to publish “a list of health and well-being partnerships and research activities” it has funded in the past five years.</p>
<p>He says that information will be updated every six months.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Coke to disclose details on its health efforts | false | https://abqjournal.com/631123/coke-to-disclose-details-on-its-health-efforts.html | 2015-08-20 | 2 |
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<p>at least until last season.</p>
<p>That’s when the Jaguars pulled out a green, third-place finish at the state meet for the first trophy in school history.</p>
<p>Now coach Marcos Gallegos is aiming to make that a regular occurrence.</p>
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<p>“It was</p>
<p>the first time we ever placed in the state tournament, and we’re hoping we can go over there and finish as good or even better this year,” he said. “Bringing home some hardware was important. It meant a lot for the program, and it meant a lot to the kids, and it meant a lot to me as well. The program has been on the verge, … . It’s good for the kids to see their hard work pay off.”</p>
<p>, over the weekend, – who is trying to become a rare five-time state champion – , in varsity, we have the two seniors, three juniors, and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. We’re returning five state placers from last year. They’re great kids, and we also have some kids coming in and stepping up.”</p>
<p>lost only four matches during his high school career. Two of those were assessed for not making weight and another one came as an eighth-grader for unnecessary roughness in a match that he was dominating, Gallegos said.</p>
<p>With the way the team is progressing this season, Gallegos has good reason to feel optimistic about continuing that trend at next month’s state meet.</p>
<p>The Jaguars have already captured the district championship with a sweep of Albuquerque Academy and Los Alamos on Wednesday. AndBut having leaders and returning individual state champions like Tapia, Wisdom and Ryan Romero is key to the team’s improvement, Gallegos said.</p>
<p>“Those seniors are real leaders; they lead by example,” he said.</p>
<p>And Tapia’s record gives him instant cred with his teammates. Only six other wrestlers in any class have earned five state titles and he’s “He’s definitely a team leader,” he said. “He’s not necessarily a vocal leader. He leads by example. He does the work and pushes kids physically on the mat. He takes pride in his wrestling and getting better every match.”</p>
<p>Tapia, who carries a grade-point average of about 3.5, is getting looks from some of the top wrestling programs in the country, Gallegos said.</p>
<p /> | Wrestling on the rise at Capital High | false | https://abqjournal.com/926887/wrestling.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Article by Kelli Richards</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>No one likes being put on the spot, but the experience does teach you to anticipate the unexpected. That's a lesson forever useful in life and in business.</p>
<p>While technological advances in <a href="https://www.recruiter.com/business-communication.html" type="external">communication Opens a New Window.</a> have diminished the frequency of in-person interactions, face-to-face exchanges are still among the most <a href="https://www.ballantine.com/ultimate-guide-2016-marketing-statistics/" type="external">preferred forms of business communication Opens a New Window.</a>, according to marketing strategy firm Ballantine. In <a href="http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/10/08/face-to-face-meetings.aspx" type="external">one survey Opens a New Window.</a> conducted by Verizon, 87 percent of respondents said in-person meetings were more creative and productive than virtual meetings.</p>
<p>But what happens when face-to-face chats go awry – when the conversation pivots in an unforeseen direction and you are suddenly asked to perform on the fly? Adapt or die, as they say. Or perhaps less dramatically, learn how to be <a href="http://www.success.com/article/9-tips-to-make-smarter-decisions-faster" type="external">an impromptu problem solver Opens a New Window.</a>&#160; – what I call a "universal adapter."</p>
<p>I once met with a prominent family who opted to back one of my clients. Turns out, I wasn't prepared for them. Every sibling weighed in on business decisions, which created an unexpected dynamic. The next curveball came when I realized I was essentially auditioning to secure the opportunity. They asked me to present my business approach on the spot, but I hadn't reviewed any materials or plans. With limited information and preparation, I wasn't ready to provide that level of detail.</p>
<p>Should I have been more prepared? Yes. Was the situation mildly uncomfortable? Definitely. Still, my predicament became an opportunity to practice thinking on my toes. <a href="http://www.success.com/article/go-with-your-gut-the-science-of-instinct" type="external">I operated from my gut Opens a New Window.</a>, put my best foot forward, and tried to follow the conversation. I responded with as much insight as I could offer. In the end, we moved forward, and it was a great learning experience.</p>
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<p>With time and practice, my ability to perform as a universal adapter has grown. It's both <a href="http://www.success.com/article/5-things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mindset-in-20-minutes" type="external">a mindset Opens a New Window.</a> and a muscle that grows stronger every time it's stretched.</p>
<p>Learning to think on the spot doesn't happen overnight. With a little finesse and confidence, you can recover the next time a live meeting finds you scanning the floor for answers.</p>
<p>1. Don't Be Afraid to Buy Some Time</p>
<p>When you're caught off-guard in a meeting, being fast on your feet is obviously ideal. But if you find yourself panicking, it's best to pause. Ask for a short break, even just to use the restroom or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-stall-interview-professionally-gordon-helle" type="external">take a slow, measured drink Opens a New Window.</a> of your water or coffee. Use that time to develop an effective response.</p>
<p>Another way to buy time&#160;is repeating&#160;the question. The person to whom you're speaking will see it as engagement on your part rather than a stalling technique. You can also ask about desired outcomes and expectations before answering the question. These simple tactics can turn a stressful scenario into&#160; <a href="http://www.success.com/article/12-ways-to-turn-stress-into-productivity" type="external">a collaborative problem-solving session Opens a New Window.</a>. You and your conversation partner might have been on different pages before, but now you'll meet in the middle.</p>
<p>2. Lean on Your Team</p>
<p><a href="http://www.success.com/blog/how-asking-for-help-is-a-sign-of-strength-and-humility" type="external">You don't have to have all the answers Opens a New Window.</a>. Step back and give your colleagues a chance to shine. Just make sure you've discussed how to best support each other beforehand.</p>
<p>When you leverage coworkers in a meeting, you build your own credibility while giving them a chance to shine. Your colleagues can set you up for success by ensuring you're recognized for sharing noteworthy ideas. Moreover, they can refer back to something you shared if someone else tries to take credit for your idea, for example. Your colleagues can serve as evangelists on your behalf by reinforcing your strengths, and you can do the same for them.</p>
<p>Once during a group discussion, one of my peers had more direct experience with the topic than I did. So I put the ball in his court by asking him, "Didn't you deal with a similar issue recently? How did you address it?" By doing this, <a href="http://www.success.com/article/4-ways-to-be-a-more-collaborative-leader" type="external">I demonstrated leadership, collaboration Opens a New Window.</a>, and a commitment to bringing value to the conversation by involving an expert.</p>
<p>3. Put People at Ease</p>
<p>It's&#160;easy to forget to be affable when you're nervous and navigating a tough conversation, but being friendly and welcoming can enhance your chances of success. Look into the eyes of the people you're talking to, <a href="http://www.success.com/article/the-science-of-a-smile" type="external">smile and laugh Opens a New Window.</a> at their jokes, and try to make them laugh as well. Humor releases tension by creating a sense of levity, which can offset stress and negative feelings.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.bellleadership.com/humor-gives-leaders-edge/" type="external">a study Opens a New Window.</a> conducted by the Bell Leadership Institute, employees were asked to describe the strengths of their company leaders. They mentioned "sense of humor" and "work ethic" twice as much as any other phrases, suggesting these traits are critical for leadership success.</p>
<p>"Humor is a vital tool of leadership," institute founder and CEO Dr. Gerald Bell said in a press release about the study. "People are used to associating laughter with the best medicine, but they are often surprised that 'sense of humor' is the phrase most frequently associated with the best in leaders."</p>
<p>Bell noted that a leader who possesses a strong work ethic and a sense of humor might have an edge over leaders who don't. Use this to your advantage in a social setting or meeting: Making people laugh creates a great deal of power, reducing the chances of being put on the spot. And if you are put on the spot, <a href="http://www.success.com/blog/use-your-humor-being-to-be-a-better-human-being" type="external">humor can make the situation less uncomfortable Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>On-the-spot moments are unavoidable, but they don't have to be detrimental. Buy time if you need to, rely on your colleagues for backup, and make participants feel comfortable. Do these things and you'll be well on your way to expert universal adapter status.</p>
<p>A version of this article originally appeared on <a href="http://www.success.com/blog/put-on-the-spot-heres-how-to-own-your-response?utm_campaign=link%20exchangeutm_medium=syndicationutm_source=Recruiterutm_term=Recruiter04/" type="external">SUCCESS.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>A highly sought-after consultant, super connector, trusted adviser, celebrity wrangler, and thought leader, <a href="http://kellirichards.com/about/" type="external">Kelli Richards Opens a New Window.</a> is the CEO of <a href="http://allaccessgroup.com/about/" type="external">The All Access Group Opens a New Window.</a>. She facilitates strategic business opportunities in digital distribution among innovative technology companies, talent and media companies, and brands to foster new revenue streams and deliver compelling consumer experiences. As a trusted adviser, she transforms the quality of people's lives. Kelli is also the author of a best-selling&#160;eBook, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/The-Magic-Moxie-Apple-Insiders-ebook/dp/B008KSBT18/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8linkCode=ll1tag=sm0fe-20linkId=5916501e93316c6a6fbc9bd0b8fa37fd" type="external">The Magic and Moxie of Apple: An Insider's View. Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Put on the Spot? Here's How to Own Your Response: | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/06/put-on-spot-here-how-to-own-your-response.html | 2017-02-10 | 0 |
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<p>Private-equity giant Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) and commodities behemoth Glencore Xstrata are two of the potential bidders to acquire Rio Tinto’s (NYSE:RIO) Canadian iron-ore operations that have been valued at about $4 billion.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The buyout buzz comes as commodity prices have retreated, potentially lowering the prices on mining and other assets and paving the way for private-equity firms to swoop in.</p>
<p>According to The Wall Street Journal, a first round of bids for Rio Tinto’s 59% stake in Iron Ore Co. of Canada has been submitted&#160; after the business was put up for sale earlier this year.</p>
<p>London-based Glencore Xstrata and Blackstone, the largest private-equity firm in the world, are among the suitors eyeing the business, which analysts have valued at about $7 billion as a whole, the Journal reported.</p>
<p>Both Blackstone and Glencore Xstrata declined to comment on the report.</p>
<p>There are also a number of other bidders that have expressed interest in the stake, including India’s Hindalco Industries and Vendata Resources, the Journal reported.</p>
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<p>Shares of Rio Tinto climbed 2.97% to $43.99 Monday morning, trimming their 2013 slump to 24%.</p> | Report: Blackstone, Glencore Xstrata Eye Rio Tinto's Canadian Iron Ore Assets | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/06/03/report-blackstone-glencore-xstrata-eye-rio-tinto-canadian-iron-ore-assets.html | 2016-03-06 | 0 |
<p>In late June, 2005, the Washington Post came eerily close to being one of many apologists for the brutal treatment of those being held in Guantanamo Bay. They wrote, in response to the remarks made by Amnesty International and Senator Dick Durbin, which compared the actions of American torturers to those in infamous gulags:</p>
<p>“Its modern equivalent is not Guantanamo Bay, but the prisons of Cuba, where Amnesty itself says a new generation of prisoners of conscience reside; or the labor camps of North Korea, which were set up on Stalinist lines; or China’s laogai, the true size of which isn’t even known; or, until recently, the prisons of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” [Presumably, the Post’s “its” refers to Soviet gulags.]</p>
<p>Even worse than the Post’s comparisons above is the support parrotted by people who think that these prisoners held without charge, chained to the floor in their own urine and feces, is defensible. Throughout the disgusting revelations of what a few cruel and twisted sadists at the prison camp established on Cuban territory did to the prisoners in their charge, there’s too often a “good-ole-boy” attitude, a wave-a-flag “patriotism” that shrugs off these allegations. I would have to respond to the Post and those readers in agreement with its comparisons:</p>
<p>I have not read details about prisons in Cuba or the labor camps of North Korea. Or China, with whom we don’t dare interfere, for fear of economic blowback. If the situations are even partially as revolting as those at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, I’m appropriately horrified, as I am by the U.S. treatment of people she holds without charge, defying International Law. I would wonder if those victims of torture in Cuba and North Korea and China have been charged and condemned, but I can’t speak on that.</p>
<p>My interest is in how this once-proud nation is so brutally treating these people, many of whom appear to be innocent of anything. Many others’ crimes were trying to defend their sovereign country against an internationally illegal invasion by a country that took away its defenses before attacking. But even for those who might be charged and condemned, should that ever happen, my interest in the U.S. treatment of these humans is for two reasons:</p>
<p>1. It is my country’s policies under investigation and condemnation; as a citizen here I am responsible for what my country does. Mitigated somewhat by speaking out, it remains MY responsibility, just as it is that of all of us not brainwashed by Fox News.</p>
<p>2. The U.S. has always claimed the moral high ground and been a “shining star” to the many in the world who don’t know of its history. (We’ll skip over a few embarrassments of the past couple of hundred years as well as treatment of the native populations.) If it holds the power to set standards, then its inhumane treatment of people, whether they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or whether they were trying to oust the invaders, or whether they have true terrorist intentions, is wrong by almost any moral standards.</p>
<p>Pragmatically, we have opened the doors for abominable treatment of our own soldiers (and civilians) when jailed by foreign countries. I cringe to imagine a godfearing nationalist in the Bush camp finding out that an American soldier held in an “enemy” camp has been beaten to death. We saw a glimpse of that from Somalia.</p>
<p>It’s not acceptable to attach electrodes to a man’s penis for one minute because someone else (if indeed anyone else has done so) did it for two minutes. We cannot defend our own tortures just because they were less (if they were) intense than some created by Hitler and Stalin. Further, we cannot hide under the “innocence” of shipping off of an “enemy” (uncharged, untried) snatched from the streets in another country, perhaps an ally, as is Italy, to Egypt, or another country where the victim can be tortured without U.S. accountability.</p>
<p>More and more of us are sickened, more and more each day. No investigative, honest person can dispute our transgressions any longer. We have broken international law. Our people and congress have been lied to regarding the justification for the invasion of Iraq. We have tossed the Geneva Accords out the window, tortured those we capture without charge or trial. Our C.I.A. has snatched a suspect from the streets of another sovereign country (Italy) without that country’s knowledge and whisked him off to be dealt with in a country with a record of torture.</p>
<p>No matter what comes out, we are surrounded by a smug arrogance, a self-righteous “defense” that says, “My country can do no wrong.” In the air is a firm and determined premise: If “My” country does it, it automatically becomes right and justifiable. Too often, those of us who demand we act in accord with our constitution, international law, common decency, and the values laid down by our founding fathers are accused of “treason.”</p>
<p>Our nation is being gobbled up by dark and embarrassing chapters propped up by a blind nationalism gone awry. What happened at Abu Graib and Guantanamo may reflect what is happening at others. Those events have cost us the respect of most of the world.</p>
<p>A poll taken in November, 2004 ( <a href="http://www.betavote.com/" type="external">http://www.betavote.com/</a>) showed 88 percent of the people polled throughout the world would have chosen Kerry over Bush. The number polled was almost half a million, and even among our allies, the preference for Kerry were. Six nations of the world voted for Bush; 234 voted for Kerry. And 35 of those 234 (including Blair’s UK, our “staunch ally,” voted with 90 (NINETY) percent or more preferring Bush. Though the poll did not claim to be scientific, most of the numbers hold up even if you give-or-take 20 points. The only six nations who would have voted for Bush over Kerry were Niger, the Congo, Azerbaizan, the Faroe Islands, Kuwait, and Libya. (More details on this unofficial survey are in my article, “If the Entire World Could Vote”) at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.liberalslant.com/lwt110104.htm</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, that was before it got bad. Before it was shown that the U.S. had plans for the invasion of Iraq LONG before the White House claimed it did, before it was concluded that there were no WMD. Before we found out that the administration had played with the facts to get what it wanted. And it was before U.S. prison tactics at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were revealed.</p>
<p>When the Washington Post implies that we’re not so bad because they believe prisoner treatment is worse in Cuba, China and North Korea, they need to remember that most of the world now looks more unfavorably at the U.S. than at these three countries.</p>
<p>What the Post needs to admit is that the U.S. is losing its bid to capture and colonize (and convert to a different religion) the entire Mideast, losing the war with the Iraqi Resistance (No, Mr. Rumsfeld, the insurgence are not in their death throes), losing the fight against terrorism itself by creating more terrorists than it kills, losing its good name, and losing the battle against poverty at home because more money that we have is being transferred to those who profit from war.</p>
<p>But perhaps the biggest loss the Post needs to state is that we are, in all probability, losing our collective consciences and, in so doing, our national soul.</p>
<p>LEIGH SAAVEDRA is a lifelong human rights activist, former teacher and arts columnist, a bit of a traveler, and the author of two books, “So Narrow the Bridge and Deep the Water,” (a book of short fiction, winner of the Governor’s Award for Fiction in the state of Washington) and “The Girl with Yellow Flowers in Her Hair,” a collection of essays regarding today’s sad happenings. She welcomes comments, even the hostile ones, at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Press Apologists for Torture | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/06/27/press-apologists-for-torture/ | 2005-06-27 | 4 |
<p>Presidents’ Day is a great shopping extravaganza! Everything from soapsuds to high-end SUVs is marked down to lure in shoppers and move products off the store shelves. However, the biggest sale that takes place on Presidents’ Day is the selling of the presidents.</p>
<p>For two centuries, Americas have watched with much glee as press stories and word-of-mouth rumors recounted the sordid tales of how one or another of our commander-in-chiefs succumbed to their wilder temptations. However much racist character assassination has been heaped on President Obama by the right, whether that he was not born in the U.S., is a Muslim or a socialist, no one has yet accused him of being unfaithful to his wife, Michelle.</p>
<p>The title of most outrageous philanderer among America’s recent presidents is a toss-up between Bill Clinton and John Kennedy. The exploits of Warren Harding and Thomas Jefferson, among earlier presidents, standout as high moments of dubious integrity.</p>
<p>America has gone through three eras in which presidential scandals have been part of the national political dialogue. The first lasted from the nation’s founding through the Civil War and was characterized by a gossip-mongering and highly partisan colonial and early-19th century press. In the decades following the Civil War through World War II, the American media played down if not hid most of the scandalous conduct of the presidents.</p>
<p>However, propelled by the ’60s cultural revolution, the sex scandals of American politicians, celebrities and other social worthies became the cannon fodder of a headline-hungry media. In the decades between Kennedy and Clinton, presidential sex scandals went from a media-hidden indulgence to a impeachable offense. As evident with the latest revelation involving (former) New York Congressman Chris Lee, if you are in the public eye, little can remain hidden.</p>
<p>Each year on Presidents’ Day, a clean-up squad of PR hacks, academics and media pundits is enrolled to white-wash the public record of America’s great leaders. This year will likely be no exception as evident in the recent rehabilitation of Ronald Reagan on the anniversary of centenary of his birthday. As the saint of modern American conservatism, his past has been cleaned-up and his policies repackaged for ideological consumption. His sad story of sexual scandal is but one of many that defines the American presidency.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>George W. Bush was a political disaster. Failures from the illegal Iraq war to the Katrina catastrophe to the Great Recession mark his administration. History will judge his presidency as the worst in the post-WWII era.</p>
<p>Bush is haunted by two sex scandals. One involved a criminal complaint and lawsuit of rape by Margie Denise Schoedinger, who later committed suicide; the second was an accusation by Tammy Phillips, a former stripper, of having an affair with Bush that ended in 1999. They were successfully dismissed as crank complaints, effectively sweeping them under the proverbial rug.</p>
<p>In 2002, Schoedinger, a 38-year-old African-American woman who lived in the Houston suburb of Missouri City, TX, filed a lawsuit against Bush alleging that he had raped her in October 2000. In her suit she alleged, “race based harassment and individual sex crimes committed against her and her husband.” Schoedinger died on September 22, 2003, of a gunshot wound to the head, nine months after filing the suit. The Harris County, TX, Medical Examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide.</p>
<p>Phillips, a 35-year-old partner in a gym in Carrollton, TX, and (based on some accounts) an Austin exotic dancer or stripper, reported an affair with W that ended in June 1999. She claims to have been introduced to then-governor of Texas by her uncle, a prominent Republican, in December 1997 during a political function at a hotel in Midland, TX. Reports differ as to whether the alleged affair lasted 9 or 18 months long.</p>
<p>The scandal got coverage in “The National Enquirer,” “New York Post” and other media outlets, but disappeared as the 2000 presidential campaign got underway. One Texas politico expressed surprise about Bush’s alleged affair with Phillips, “It means that he stopped fooling around just prior to announcing his presidential run.” Phillips seems to have disappeared and not pursued the accusation.</p>
<p>One can only wonder if W got his education in philandering from his papa, George H.W. Bush. Kitty Kelley’s no-holds-barred exposé of the Bush clan, “The Family,” mentions two alleged affairs involving # 41. One involved Jennifer Fitzgerald, who served as White House deputy chief of protocol during his administration, and the other an Italian woman with whom he set up house in a New York apartment in the 1960s. The senior Bush has denied the allegations and Fitzgerald has refused to comment.</p>
<p>However, the sexual exploits of Clinton and Kennedy define the post-modern media era as both were notorious philanderers. Clinton’s trysts with Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick and who knows how many others became a national scandal. John Kennedy’s affairs with Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson; Inga Arvad, a Danish journalist; the stripper, Blaze Starr; Judith Exner Campbell, mistress to mob boss Sam Giancana; and White House secretaries Priscilla Weir and Jill Cowan, who were referred to as “Fiddle” and “Faddle,” among others, have moved from scandal to presidential lore.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Presidential sex scandals can occur by simply challenging the social or religious conventions of the day. Jimmy Carter’s 1976 “Playboy” interview, in which he uttered those famous words, “I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” is but one example. Similarly, a friendship between a man and a woman could be the grounds for suspicion as to more scandalous goings-on. George Washington’s close friendship with Mrs. Sally Fairfax and Woodrow Wilson’s associations with Mrs. Mary Hulbert Peck and Edith Bolling Galt came under much suspicion. Andrew Jackson was assailed over his marriage to Rachel Donelson Robards, an alleged bigamist, because her divorce was not legally finalized before their marriage.</p>
<p>A similar scandal of innuendo involved Calvin Coolidge. As reported in the tabloids of the day, Coolidge and his wife, Grace, were being separately shown round a chicken farm. Learning that the farm’s rooster had sex dozens of times a day, the first lady said: “Tell that to the president.” On being told, the president asked: “Same hen every time?” “Oh, no, Mr. President, a different one each time.” Coolidge is supposed to have quipped: “Tell that to the first lady.” There had been rumors that Grace Coolidge had intimate liaisons with secret service agents.</p>
<p>The sex scandal associated with Ronald Reagan is more complicated. As the champion of the conservative ascention to federal power, Reagan came under hardline Christian scrutiny because he is the only divorced person to be president. He married Jane Wyman in January 1940, her third husband; she filed for divorce in 1948. In 1952, he married the actress Nancy Davis.</p>
<p>However, things got more intriguing for Reagan when Kitty Kelley revealed in an unauthorized bio of Nancy Reagan that, in 1952 when the Gipper was president of the Screen Actors Guild, he reportedly raped the actress Selene Walters in her home. “I opened the door,” she admitted in an interview in “People” magazine, “then it was the battle of the couch. I was fighting him. I didn’t want him to make love to me. He’s a very big man, and he just had his way.” (Kelley also reported, without substantiation, that the Reagans smoked pot with Jack Benny and George Burns and that Frank Sinatra had an affair with Nancy Reagan.) It should be noted that no legal actions were taken by the Reagans against Kelley.</p>
<p>The alleged homosexuality of James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln is a more slippery subject given that our 20th century notions of sexuality are not applicable to 19th century same-sex intimacies. In addition, it was not uncommon for strangers to share a bed for a night when staying at a small-town inn or share a bed at a rural household with strangers traveling in the wilderness or at isolated settlements (i.e., “bundling”). However, as in Buchanan’s and Lincoln’s cases, it was uncommon for male (or female) acquaintances of financial means to share an urban home.</p>
<p>Buchanan was America’s most “out” president. He lived for many years with William Rufus King, a former vice president and Alabama senator. The two men were considered inseparable and were the butt of much mockery. Andrew Jackson dubbed King “Miss Nancy” and Aaron Brown, a prominent Democrat, writing to President James Polk’s wife, referred to him as Buchanan’s “better half,” “his wife” and “Aunt Fancy . . . rigged out in her best clothes.”</p>
<p>A new round of debate as to Lincoln’s sexuality emerged following the 2005 release of C.A. Tripp’s book, “The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.” A former Kinsey researcher and author of “The Homosexual Matrix,” Tripp’s book takes up the argument only hinted at by Carl Sandburg in his famed 1926 biography of the assassinated president. Sandburg, using code words of the day for homosexuality, suggested something deeper about Lincoln, “a streak of lavender and soft spots as May violets.” It should be noted that most leading Lincoln scholars, notably David Herbert Donald in “‘We Are Lincoln Men,” have assailed the Tripp thesis.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>More traditional heterosexual rumors follow still other presidents. These rumors range from too-intimate friendships with women other than their wives to engaging in adulterous liaisons to fathering an out-of-wedlock child. In the good-old days, these secrets could be contained, hidden from the public. Those days are over.</p>
<p>Grover Cleveland was, like Buchanan, a bachelor when he was elected president. However, he came to the office with a reputation as a lady’s man. After assuming office in 1874, he was confronted by newspaper reports claiming he had an affair with Mrs. Maria Crofts Halpin, who accused him of fathering her illegitimate 10- year-old son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland. While he never admitted paternity, Cleveland sent child support to Mrs. Halpin.</p>
<p>Often forgotten, when Cleveland took office he invited his sister, Rose, to serve as first lady until he married in 1886. Rose was a 19th century “spinster” with a successful career as a teacher, novelist and literary critic. In 1889, she began a romantic friendship with Evangeline Simpson, a wealthy 30-year-old woman. The two women exchanged a series of romantic letters. In one, Rose admits: “I tremble at the thought of you” and “I dare not think of your arms.” Simpson replies, calling Cleveland “my Clevy, my Viking, my Everything.” After Simpson’s husband died, the women moved to Italy in 1910 and lived together until Cleveland died in 1918.</p>
<p>James Garfield’s alleged extramarital affair with a “Mrs. Calhoun” appears to have taken place in October 1862 while he was a Civil War general. It allegedly took place during a visit to New York while, as he wrote, he was living through “years of darkness.” When his wife, Lucretia, discovered the affair, they worked out their differences.</p>
<p>Scholars have had an easier time uncovering the extramarital affairs of 20th century presidents – although their sexual nature has often been denied. For example, Franklin Roosevelt’s “friendships” with Lucy Page Mercer, Eleanor’s secretary, is openly acknowledged, but its apparent sexual aspect is still debated. It is reported that Eleanor threatened to divorce FDR if he didn’t end his relations with Mercer; and it was Mercer, then a widow, who was at FDR’s bedside at Warm Springs just before he died. FDR is reported to also have had affairs with Marguerite Alice (Missy) LeHand, his secretary, and Crown Princess Marta of Norway, who lived at the White House during World War II. (Eleanor’s “friendships” with Nancy Cook, Marion Dickerman and Lorena Hickok are the subject of similar debate.)</p>
<p>During World War II, Dwight Eisenhower is rumored to have had an affair with Kay Summersby, his English driver. Ike is reported to have wanted to resign from the army, divorce his wife and marry Summersby, but General George Marshall said it would ruin him if he did. Later, Summersby wrote a book, “Past Forgotten: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower,” about their relationship. She claimed that she and Ike never had sex: He was impotent due to the pressures of the war!</p>
<p>Much gossip circulated about Richard Nixon’s long-term friendship with Marianna Liu, a Chinese cocktail waitress he met in Hong Kong while vice-president. Nixon first met Liu in 1958 while she was a tour-guide. It is reported that, in the mid-’60s, Liu and a female friend had a party with Nixon and his buddy, Bebe Rebozo, in a suite at the Mandarin Hotel.</p>
<p>What gives this scandal a particular sleazy caste is the alleged role of J. Edgar Hoover, America’s foremost drag queen, in exploiting the affair to gain leverage over Nixon. As the story goes, one of Liu’s closest friends was a general in the Communist Chinese army. In 1969, Liu moved to Nixon’s hometown of Whittier, CA, and denied that there ever had been an affair.</p>
<p>And then there is Lyndon Johnson. He once boasted: “I have had more women by accident than he [JFK] has had on purpose.” Among his reported conquests were Madeline Brown, who claims that they had an affair that lasted more than two decades and that LBJ fathered her son. Brown insists that their affair was purely physical and remained hidden from Lady Bird Johnson.</p>
<p>In his biogrpahy of LBJ, Robert Caro revealed that he also had a thirty year affair with Alice Glass. Their friendship began in 1937 when she was living with her common-law husband, Charles Marsh, and their two children. Marsh was a newspaper mogul and one of his papers, “Austin American-Statesman,” was an influential LBJ supporter. It is rumored that Glass ended her affair with LBJ in 1967 over her opposition to the Vietnam war. She is reported to have burned their love letters.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>We finally come to America’s two greatest presidential sex scandals, those involing Warren Harding and Thomas Jefferson. While Jefferson is warmly remembered as the principal author of the Constitution and the most cosmopolitan of the Founding Fathers, if one recalls Harding at all, it’s for his role in the notorious Teapot Dome corruption scandal of 1921.</p>
<p>Harding is reported to have had an affair for fifteen years with Carrie Fulton Phillips, the wife of a friend, James Phillips. Before becoming president, he began a relationship with Nan Britton, thirty years his junior. It is rumored that he had sexual liaisons with her in the White House. Their adulterous affair culminated with the birth of an illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth Ann. After Harding’s death, Britton published, “The President’s Daughter,” an intimate account of their affair.</p>
<p>However, the most scandalous part of this scandalous tale is the questions associated with Harding’s untimely death in 1923. While stopping over in San Francisco from a trip to Alaska and Canada, he came down with ptomaine poisoning contracted from tainted Japanese crabmeat and died. Rumors circulated widely that his wife, Florence, poisoned him.</p>
<p>Thomas Jefferson remains America’s most compelling president and his reported sexuality mirrors this passion. In his youth, he attempted to seduce his best friend’s wife, Betsy Walker, and after his wife Martha died he apparently had an affair in Paris with Mrs. Maria Cosway. However, it was his relation with Sally Hemings, the African-American slave who was his wife’s half-sister (the daughter of Martha’s father) and with whom he had six children, that makes this America’s most scandalous sex scandal.</p>
<p>Hemings (sometimes called Sarah) was born in 1773, the daughter of Elizabeth (Betty) Hemings and, most likely, John Wayles, Jefferson’s father-in-law. She lived in Paris (along with her brother, James) with the Jefferson family between 1787 and 1789. According to her son, Madison, she served Jefferson at Monticello as chambermaid, seamstress, nursemaid-companion and, later, lady’s maid to his daughters. Madison referred to his mother as “Jefferson’s concubine.” Four of her children with Jefferson survived to adulthood, two females and two males – all appeared to be white in complexion and Jefferson set them all free. Ironically, Hemings was not freed by Jefferson but given “her time” (a form of unofficial freedom so she could live in Virginia) by his daughter, Martha Randolph.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Looking back from the vantage point of 21st century morality, one can well appreciate what the fear of public exposure has on politicians. Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, which lead to his impeachment, serves as much as a warning for those challenging Christian conservative hypocrisy as an indicator of the barbarity inherent to partisan politics. It also says much about the ability of those with powerful political connections, like George Bush, to suppress questionable behavior, whether involving sex, drugs or dubious military service.</p>
<p>In the end, however, presidents from Washington to Obama are but all-too-human men struggling within the deeper crisis of repression, the battle between what Christian propriety demands to maintain patriarchy and the deeper forces of the unconscious to overcome sexual repression. Each president’s behavior is not unlike that of ordinary Americans caught in the cultural vise that deforms us as civilized people. Their lessons should not be lost on Presidents’ Day.</p>
<p>DAVID ROSEN is the author of “ <a href="" type="internal">Sex Scandals America: Politics &amp; the Ritual of Public Shaming</a>” (Key, 2009). He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Two Centuries of Presidential Sex Scandals | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/02/21/two-centuries-of-presidential-sex-scandals/ | 2011-02-21 | 4 |
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<p>Abdallah, who took the helm in January, predicts the university will award a record number of bachelor’s degrees this spring and post a four-year graduation rate around 26 percent. That would mark the sixth straight year of improvement in UNM’s four-year graduation rate.</p>
<p>The incentives aren’t cheap, but students who graduate faster save themselves a lot of money, lower the likelihood of quitting school before obtaining a degree and get into the workforce quicker. UNM now spends $2.3 million annually on academic advisement and the Center for Academic Support. It has redirected $500,000 into a math learning lab and English program that replaced remedial classes and put $1.4 million to recruiting academically successful students.</p>
<p>Working with state Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron, UNM has helped ensure uniformity in course content, making credits more easily transferable. And it has cut the credit hours required for most bachelor’s degrees from 128 to 120, among recommendations from the Martinez administration to make graduating in four years doable. UNM also makes the final semester of classes free for students who stay on track and graduate in four years.</p>
<p>The results are undeniable: From 15.8 in the 2012-13 school year, to 21.7 in 2015-16, to upward of 25 percent this year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>As Abdallah points out, if this upward trajectory continues and these grads stay in New Mexico, the investment “will pay off 100 times into both the personal benefit of the students and their parents, but also the state.”</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: UNM makes 4-year strides | false | https://abqjournal.com/1004457/unm-makes-4year-strides.html | 2 |
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<p>With two patients infected with Ebola virus hurrying to their hospital, I imagine there are some healthcare workers at Emory University Hospital's isolation unit who are scared shitless.</p>
<p>I know I would be. The only time I ever have been really scared about catching a lethal infection was when SARS hit. Consider the specifics – a rapidly spreading, 10 percent fatal disease and no one knew what caused it, how it was transmitted, or why some people died and others didn’t. Plus it hopped from China and Hong Kong to Toronto of all places, sickening and killing as it went – especially healthcare workers like me. Of the 8096 cases of SARS, <a href="http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/" type="external">1706 occurred in healthcare workers</a> — including many doctors <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_medical_professionals_who_died_during_the_SARS_outbreak" type="external">who died</a>.</p>
<p>So in 2013, when the call came that there was a person with possible SARS in our emergency room and could I come down and see her, I felt something I had not previously experienced. As an infectious disease specialist, I certainly had had my share of risky moments, but none of them scared me: I calmly had cared for AIDS patients before we knew what HIV was or how it was transmitted; I calmly had worked in a lab and cultured HIV on cells and pipetted away supernatants; I calmly had worked at a Manhattan hospital, now closed, during the largest outbreak of extensively resistant TB (XDR-TB) in the history of the United States; I calmly spent time on smallpox preparations and I never have been faintly alarmed about influenza.</p>
<p>But SARS got to me. It was mysterious and lethal and picked off young and old. Carlo Urbani, the WHO doctor who was the world's expert on SARS, got it and died. Boom just like that. I was stunned.</p>
<p>And so, though I knew that no cases of SARS had hit the US and that the double gloves and double masks I was donning would likely protect me, even if the patient were the first on American soil, when the call came, I felt scared shitless.</p>
<p>So I think I know what some people at Emory Hospital might be feeling right now, though their challenge is exponentially greater than mine. First, they too are scared shitless – no doubt about it. It's the extreme version of the sick feeling a person gets when preparing to jump off the high dive for the first time. Animal panic always routs rational odds making. You figure everything will be OK but you wonder how why and where on earth you ended up where you ended up. What the fuck was I thinking?</p>
<p>Second, they wonder if their family will ever forgive them if they get sick. l worked in the HIV lab while my wife was pregnant with our first son and would stare out the window imagining my wife explaining to my fatherless boy about what happened to Daddy. Would she say I was a hero, someone who bravely tried to move science forward? Or that I was a selfish imprudent slob who thought that the chance at a small slice of glory was worth gambling with the happiness of loved ones?</p>
<p>Third, they are mad at the situation, the hospital, the patient, the world. There is something infuriating about being in such a situation, one where you realize the massive power and heartlessness of brute fate and your own puniness as history itself grinds forward.</p>
<p>But last, I suspect they will have a sense of pride that they are the ones, the ones entrusted with this scary task. ICU sorts of rooms, such as I imagine the Emory facility has, always are a bit disorienting, full of machines and futuristic sounds and strange angles. Plus wearing gowns, gloves, goggles and masks imparts an eerie moonwalk sensation as one enters the facility.</p>
<p>Yet through all the noise and hubbub created by weird machines and the extra staff directing worker flow to make certain that everyone is doing the safest thing, there they are: the patients, Brantly and Writebol, very ill people on hospital beds with taped-down intravenous lines and oxygen, connected to various other tubes and wires. Frail, desperate people. And then, corny as it sounds, I imagine the workers will forget the fear immediately and think, ok what do I have to do to help these guys.</p> | Caring for Ebola Patients Deeply Scary For Health Care Workers | true | https://thedailybeast.com/caring-for-ebola-patients-deeply-scary-for-health-care-workers | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
<p>Heather McGhee appeared on the Meet the Press panel and had some prescient words for journalists and pundits who continue covering Donald Trump with much timidity.</p>
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<p>"I'm sorry, but we should never stop being appalled at the serial disrespect that this man has for the facts," said Heather McGhee. "There's a man headed to the White House that has a relationship to the truth that is unbefitting of our country. And the other sort of latent thing we're talking about, about whether we take him literally or seriously, is how dangerous he is.&#160;And honestly, we are going to look back at this moment and ask how much backbone we all had at this moment. Are we going to follow those in his party, with Romney and Ryan and Cruz, who frankly, ended up putting their love of power ahead of their love of country, or are we going to have the backbone to stand up for our neighbors, who are very much under threat right now, and stand up for our constitution and our values and the planet."</p>
<p>Sadly, the panelist gave virtually no corroboration to her words. It is as if the media in unable or unwilling to walk and chew at the same time. Donald Trump knows this and throws out a whole lot of silly stories that the media finds easy to cover as they ignore more complicated issues like his conflict of interest and more.</p> | Heather McGhee on Trump: ‘relationship with the truth unbefitting of our country’ (VIDEO) | true | https://egbertowillies.com/2016/12/04/heather-mcghee-trump-relationship-truth/ | 2016-12-04 | 4 |
<p>LONDON (AP) - Chelsea coach Antonio Conte hit back at a taunt by Jose Mourinho by suggesting the Manchester United manager has senile dementia.</p>
<p>Without naming names, Mourinho appeared to aim a dig at Conte and Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp - two of the most animated and passionate coaches in the Premier League - by saying on Thursday he did not feel they need to behave like "a clown" on the touchline.</p>
<p>Asked a day later about Mourinho's remarks, Conte said: "I think he has to see himself in the past - maybe he was speaking about himself in the past.</p>
<p>"Maybe, sometimes, I think that someone forgets what's said in the past, which is his behavior. Sometimes I think there is, I don't know the name, but 'demenza senile' (the Italian for 'senile dementia') ... when you forget what you do in the past."</p>
<p>Conte might have been referring to Mourinho's charge down the touchline at Old Trafford when his Porto team eliminated United on its way to winning the Champions League in 2004. Or a similar incident while Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea, when the London club scored late to eliminate Paris Saint-Germain from the Champions League in 2014.</p>
<p>Mourinho famously poked his finger in the eye of Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova in a touchline scuffle during the Spanish Super Cup in 2011.</p>
<p>Mourinho has had two spells in charge of Chelsea - from 2004-07 and 2013-15. In his second spell, he won the league title in his second season before being fired halfway through the third season.</p>
<p>Conte succeeded Mourinho as Chelsea's full-time manager.</p>
<p>"There is a person that continues to look here," Conte said. "You understand? He went away, but he continued to look here."</p>
<p>LONDON (AP) - Chelsea coach Antonio Conte hit back at a taunt by Jose Mourinho by suggesting the Manchester United manager has senile dementia.</p>
<p>Without naming names, Mourinho appeared to aim a dig at Conte and Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp - two of the most animated and passionate coaches in the Premier League - by saying on Thursday he did not feel they need to behave like "a clown" on the touchline.</p>
<p>Asked a day later about Mourinho's remarks, Conte said: "I think he has to see himself in the past - maybe he was speaking about himself in the past.</p>
<p>"Maybe, sometimes, I think that someone forgets what's said in the past, which is his behavior. Sometimes I think there is, I don't know the name, but 'demenza senile' (the Italian for 'senile dementia') ... when you forget what you do in the past."</p>
<p>Conte might have been referring to Mourinho's charge down the touchline at Old Trafford when his Porto team eliminated United on its way to winning the Champions League in 2004. Or a similar incident while Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea, when the London club scored late to eliminate Paris Saint-Germain from the Champions League in 2014.</p>
<p>Mourinho famously poked his finger in the eye of Barcelona assistant coach Tito Vilanova in a touchline scuffle during the Spanish Super Cup in 2011.</p>
<p>Mourinho has had two spells in charge of Chelsea - from 2004-07 and 2013-15. In his second spell, he won the league title in his second season before being fired halfway through the third season.</p>
<p>Conte succeeded Mourinho as Chelsea's full-time manager.</p>
<p>"There is a person that continues to look here," Conte said. "You understand? He went away, but he continued to look here."</p> | Conte suggests rival manager Mourinho has senile dementia | false | https://apnews.com/amp/295d37a097f54749aee2e2aafc924987 | 2018-01-05 | 2 |
<p>ROANOKE, Va. — The Glebe, one of four retirement centers owned by Virginia Baptist Homes, voluntarily filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division on June 28.</p>
<p>Randall Robinson, president of Virginia Baptist Homes, stressed, “Neither VBH nor the three other communities are part of the Chapter 11 filing.”</p>
<p>Robinson also made clear that the restructuring “will allow us to continue to pay all critical vendors and give us the breathing room to operate on a ‘business-as-usual’ basis while we restructure our debt.”</p>
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<p>In connection with the filing, the not-for-profit company also announced that it had received a commitment for debtor-in-possession (“DIP”) financing. At the time of the filing, The Glebe had assets of $57 million and liabilities in excess of $80 million.</p>
<p>“We want to assure our residents and their families of our intention to maintain full staffing and provide all customary services, at the same high level of quality that they have come to expect, during our reorganization,” said Robinson. “Our goal is for The Glebe to emerge from Chapter 11 as a financially viable community that will continue its mission of effectively serving the diverse needs of our residents.”</p>
<p>Opened in 2005, The Glebe consists of 338,000 square feet of space located on 65 acres just north of Daleville in&#160; Botetourt&#160; County. The community currently has 196 residents in its independent living cottages and apartments, assisted living center and health care center offering 24-hour supervision from licensed nursing and health care personnel.</p>
<p>With a current occupancy rate of approximately 72 percent, the community employs approximately 190 individuals, including administrative, marketing, housekeeping, dining, maintenance, and resident services personnel. Since October 2008, operations, finance and marketing at The Glebe and three other VBH communities have been directed by CRSA/LCS Management, LLC, which oversees 21 retirement communities in 12 states.</p>
<p>In its court filing, The Glebe noted that “the confluence of several events” led it to seek Chapter 11 protection. The document cited construction delays, the recessive economy and the declining housing market&#160; which combined to cause less than anticipated occupancy rates from 2005 to 2007.</p>
<p>Among the events affecting The Glebe’s ability to pay its loans was a decision by the State Corporation Commission last year to bar it from charging a one-time entrance fee to residents. Fees had ranged from $123,000 for a one-bedroom apartment to $324,000 for a two-bedroom cottage, according to court documents. In addition to the fees, monthly rents range from $2,400 to $3,865.</p>
<p>The entrance fees have for years been a part of Virginia Baptist Homes’ economic strategy after it had experienced a financial crisis during the early 1980s due to a preponderance of benevolence admissions that left VBH with a negative cash flow for a period of years. At that time, Virginia Baptist churches gave significantly to rescue the Homes from economic disaster.</p>
<p>According to a report in the Roanoke Times, The Glebe unsuccessfully petitioned the SCC to lift the ban last year.</p>
<p>The Association of Glebe Residents Inc., is now petitioning the regulatory agency to remove the ban, arguing that the best way to protect the elderly tenants’ investment in The Glebe is to allow it to collect the fees and pay down its debt, according to&#160; Carter “Chip” Magee, an attorney who represents the residents’ association.</p>
<p>The SCC could rule on the residents’ petition later this year. Meanwhile, 20 new residents have moved into The Glebe and signed agreements promising to pay the entrance fees if the SCC lifts the ban. Lifting the ban would immediately make $5.3 million in fees available to The Glebe, according to its bankruptcy filing.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">Jim White</a> is editor of the Religious Herald.</p> | Virginia Baptist Homes’ Glebe files for bankruptcy protection in court | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/virginiabaptisthomesglebefilesforbankruptcyprotectionincourt/ | 3 |
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<p>Electric-car maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has been shaking up auto distribution over the years, eschewing the traditional franchised dealer model in favor of direct sales. Tesla stores typically have minimal inventory on site, and are located in areas with heavy foot traffic -- unheard of for traditional dealers that invest millions of dollars into large lots packed full of inventory alongside showrooms. While Tesla will sell inventory vehicles on the spot (if they're permitted to sell direct in the state), most sales are conducted online and customers frequently custom order their vehicle configuration.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Could that all be about to change for Model 3?</p>
<p>Tesla stores showcase different interior options. Image source: Tesla.</p>
<p>Model 3 Owners Club founder Trevor Page has <a href="https://model3ownersclub.com/threads/tesla-is-moving-to-more-of-an-inventory-sales-approach-for-model-3.3247/" type="external">said Opens a New Window.</a>that Tesla could be planning on shifting more toward an inventory sales model, according to an anonymous source. Page says that the company's Owner Advisors are already being encouraged to offer prospective customers inventory vehicles that are prebuilt.</p>
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<p>Last year, Tesla also introduced a new feature for its online store that attempts to find a close match among inventory vehicles when a customer is designing a vehicle. Inventory vehicles can be delivered faster than a newly produced custom configuration, even if the car has to be shipped; for example, a new custom Model S order is quoted for June delivery, while new inventory vehicles deliver in 14 days.</p>
<p>Page says that custom orders will always be available, but that Tesla may begin to prioritize prebuilt configurations in order to streamline production.</p>
<p>Shifting incrementally toward inventory-based sales would be more similar to how the rest of the auto industry has always worked in terms of distribution. While you'll still never have to haggle for hours on end at a Tesla store, expanding inventory has many implications.</p>
<p>Not only would carrying more inventory require more physical real estate to store those cars (many stores are located within shopping malls and are allocated a modest amount of space to store inventory), but Tesla would be taking on additional inventory risk. Tesla's inventory carrying value has been <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/09/breaking-down-teslas-inventory-increase.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">on the rise Opens a New Window.</a>, in part because of expanding sales abroad, where it takes longer to ship vehicles. Like the rest of the auto industry today, if a manufacturer builds a configuration that the market doesn't want, it bears inventory risk if that vehicle sits unsold. In order to minimize this risk, Tesla will need to bolster its demand forecasting capabilities and determine which options and configurations are most popular. Consumer preferences vary by geography and other factors, so this is no easy task. But selling direct has given Tesla quite a bit of data on demand.</p>
<p>Compare that to a custom order, where a customer has already configured their vehicle, placed a deposit, and the vehicle is simply in transit to its final destination. Assuming the customer doesn't refuse delivery, there's virtually no inventory risk in that situation even if the vehicle is technically accounted for as inventory on the balance sheet. Under the dealer model, dealer retail inventories are shifted from the manufacturer's balance sheet to the dealer's, many of which are small, private local businesses.</p>
<p>On the other hand, U.S. car buyers generally don't build to order and prefer the instant gratification of buying a car on the spot, even if that includes paying for some superfluous bundled options; less than 5% of new car purchases in the U.S. in 2015 were custom orders, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). In contrast, European car buyers custom order approximately half the time.</p>
<p>The upside, as Page points out, is manufacturing efficiency. It's more efficient to manufacture a high volume of vehicles using prebuilt configurations compared to a custom configuration for every car coming down the production line, and with the pressure on to begin ramping Model 3 production within a matter of months, shifting toward inventory sales makes sense.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than TeslaWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=80390aa1-414e-4da9-ba3d-13e88f8cfbaa&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 Tesla wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=80390aa1-414e-4da9-ba3d-13e88f8cfbaa&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 April 3, 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 Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. 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> | Tesla Could Be Shifting More Towards Inventory Sales | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/11/tesla-could-be-shifting-more-towards-inventory-sales.html | 2017-04-11 | 0 |
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<p>The fundraising bike ride is the latest addition to an event in Corrales that spans back more than two decades. The festival this year takes place at various locations throughout the village on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.</p>
<p>The Sandoval County Cycling Club is putting on the Saturday bike ride and participants can choose either a 7-, 14- or 21-mile ride through the village. The entry fee is $50 per family or $25 per individual. Registration will take place from 6:30 to 8 a.m. at Bob’s Sew and Vac, 3551 N.M. 528, next to Burlington Coat Factory. Riders can head out after 7:30 a.m.</p>
<p>Money raised from the tour will support the Safe Routes to School program in the village. The program encourages children to bike or walk to school and aims to provide safe ways for them to get there.</p>
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<p>One of the club members and ride organizer Elena Kayak said the program has been funded in the past by grant money. The group has been able to buy signs, pay for striping on the road to indicate children will be crossing and provide flashing signals on the side of the road so drivers know to look for bikers and walkers. She said money raised could help pay for a bicycling and walking club at school and other walking and biking events.</p>
<p>Autumn is the favorite time of year for many bikers because of the nice weather and beautiful scenery, she said, so it was a natural fit to hold the ride during the harvest festival.</p>
<p>“It (the bike tour) also gets children and their families outdoors,” she said. “I’m a true believer in children being connected with the outdoors and nature. When they are inside all the time, they develop an apathy to the natural world.”</p>
<p>Hay rides, pet mayor and more</p>
<p>Several festival traditions are making a return to this year’s event, as well, including hay rides, the Corrales Growers Market, the corn maze and the growing festival favorite: the Corrales Pet Mayor election.</p>
<p>Up for this year’s coveted crown are Cece the goat, Andy the Doberman, Loki the Samoyed, Don Julio the Jack Russell terrier, Elecktra the quarterhorse, Simba the terrier, Bleu the Grand Bleu de Gascogne.</p>
<p>Sadly, one of the candidates, Bubba the Airedale, passed away recently.</p>
<p>As is custom, the festivities kick-off Saturday morning with the pet parade. Registration and assembly for the parade starts at 8 a.m. in the Corrales Recreation Center. Judging will take place before the parade, which starts at 9:30 a.m. and heads north on Corrales Road.</p>
<p>There will also be food, music and for extra costs attendees can go to the Corrales Harvest Hootenanny Saturday night, participate in the Corrida de Corrales 5k and 10k run on Sunday morning, and a wine fair at local wineries in Corrales on both days. There will be free parking throughout the village in designated areas.</p>
<p>The festival costs $5 for adults and $2 for children ages 5 to 11. A combo ticket for the festival and the corn maze costs $10 for adults and $5 for children.</p>
<p>The event is being sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Corrales. The service organization will use the money raised at the event to award grants to local nonprofit organizations. Tour de Pump(kin) to raise Money for Safe Routes to School The Corrales Pet Mayor election is becoming a favorite of the Harvest Festival. Unfortunately, one of the candidates, Bubba the Airedale terrier, owned by Patricia Warwick and Gary Smith, died recently.</p>
<p>Candidate dies</p> | Corrales Harvest Festival is Back | false | https://abqjournal.com/133652/corrales-harvest-festival-is-back.html | 2012-09-27 | 2 |
<p>North Korea's new leader Kim Jong Un has delivered his first ever televised public speech during a major military parade to mark the centenary of the birth of his grandfather, broadcast on state TV.</p>
<p>Kim marked the centenary of the birth of his grandfather, the nation's founder Kim Il Sung, by addressing a crowd gather in Pyongyang for massive, orchestrated 100th anniversary celebrations, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/14/world/asia/north-korea-celebration/index.html" type="external">CNN reported</a>.</p>
<p>"I offer the purest respect and the greatest honor to great comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il," Kim told cheering crowds, <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1195308/1/.html" type="external">Agence France-Presse reported</a>.</p>
<p>"I express my greetings to our compatriots in South Korea and across the world who dedicate themselves to reunification and the prosperity of the nations," he continued, rarely looking up from his text.</p>
<p>"Let's go on for our final victory!" he said, reportedly pointing his finger ahead to tens of thousands of troops taking part in the massive military parade in the capital Pyongyang, who repeatedly chanted "Mansei! [long life]".</p>
<p>It was Kim's first public address since assuming title of North Korean "supreme leader" following the death of his father Kim Jong Il.</p>
<p>It came two days after the failed launch of a long-range rocket that North Korea had claimed was carrying a satellite into space.</p>
<p>Western nations, who suspect the North of using the launch to test its nuclear missile capabilities, had urged Pyongyang to call off the launch.</p>
<p>The rocket broke apart soon after launch and failed to escape the Earth's atmosphere.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120413/north-koreas-failed-rocket-brings-condemnation-embarrassme" type="external">North Korea's failed rocket brings condemnation, embarrassment</a></p>
<p>Kim addressed the failure, saying it was important to remember military might was about more than rockets, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kim-jong-un-marks-centenary-of-grandfathers-birth-with-speech-to-north-koreans/story-e6frg6so-1226326892149" type="external">the Australian reported</a>.</p>
<p>North Korean state TV reportedly showed footage of the large blocks of North Korean troops marching in tight formation in the capital, amid music and coordinated chanting.</p>
<p>Military officials could be seen saluting from vehicles that drove past tanks lined up in the square.</p>
<p>Kim senior, deemed the Eternal President, was born Aug. 15, 1912. Following North Korea's liberation from Japan, he pledged in Pyongyang to build a nation on wealth, strength and knowledge.</p>
<p>According to CNN, Kim Jong-un offered remarks that regularly stirred applause from onlookers.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/120306/australian-economy-wayne-swan-mining-billionaires" type="external">Tough times for Australian billionaires</a></p> | Kim Jong Un makes first public speech at Pyongyang ceremony | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-15/kim-jong-un-makes-first-public-speech-pyongyang-ceremony | 2012-04-15 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Microsoft kicked off its <a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/09/upcoming-windows-milestones-shared-with-partners-at-wpc.aspx" type="external">Worldwide Partner Conference Opens a New Window.</a> in Toronto with a bit of a bang earlier today — during the event’s keynote address, Microsoft VP and Windows CFO Tami Reller revealed when manufacturers and consumers would be able to get their hands on Windows 8.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The long-awaited operating system is on track to be released to manufacturers in the first week of August, with a consumer launch slated for “late October.”</p>
<p>Though it’s nice to finally have an actual timeline for the Windows 8 release process, the particular launch window Microsoft announced isn’t much of a surprise — rumors of an October launch <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/03/windows-8-release-candidate-rumored-for-june-retail-release-in-october/" type="external">have Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/21/first_wave_of_windows_8_tablets_rumored_to_arrive_in_october.html" type="external">been Opens a New Window.</a> <a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120320PD213.html" type="external">swirling Opens a New Window.</a> for a little while now.</p>
<p>That said, it isn’t without its shortcomings. With “general availability” set for October, Microsoft and its hardware partners will largely miss out on the lucrative back-to-school computer shopping season that kicks off late in the summer and generally runs through September.</p>
<p>It’s not a complete loss though, as Microsoft has been busy covering its bases. The company revealed its <a href="https://windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-US/Home/ProgramInfo" type="external">Windows Upgrade Offer Opens a New Window.</a> back in June, under which customers who purchase Windows 7 PCs between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013 will be able to upgrade to the new operating system for a scant $15. What’s more, Microsoft last week has said that users on XP, Vista, or 7 will be able to purchase the <a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade-to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx" type="external">Windows 8 upgrade for $40 Opens a New Window.</a> once October rolls around in an attempt to simplify the transition.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s not the same as actually having Windows 8 PCs on store shelves and displays waiting to be played with (especially when Macs seem to be popular among <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/09/19/survey-60-of-undergrad-pc-purchases-are-macs/" type="external">the back-to-school crowd Opens a New Window.</a>), but it’s far better than nothing.</p>
<p>More from Tech Crunch:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Microsoft VP: Windows 8 to Be Officially Released in 'Late October' | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/07/09/microsoft-vp-windows-8-to-be-officially-released-in-late-october.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
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<p>But following a board inquiry into her executive team’s handling of epic data breaches in 2014, she’ll be taking a sizable pay cut. In Yahoo’s annual report filed Wednesday, the company said it would not award Mayer her cash bonus for 2016 “that was otherwise expected to be paid to her”– as well as that it accepted Mayer’s offer to forgo her annual equity award. Mayer’s target bonus, which is dependent on performance, is $2 million, while her employment agreement says she will get no less than $12 million in stock awards each year.</p>
<p>Yahoo also said its General Counsel and Secretary, Ronald Bell, would be leaving the company, and would receive no payments in connection with his departure.</p>
<p>The board’s investigation concluded that some senior executives and members of its legal and I.T. staff knew of the hack in 2014 but “did not properly comprehend or investigate, and therefore failed to act sufficiently upon, the full extent of knowledge,” Yahoo said in the filing. While they took “certain remedial actions,” they should have done more, noting the probe “found that failures in communication, management, inquiry and internal reporting contributed to the lack of proper comprehension and handling” of the massive security breach. The board’s probe “did not conclude that there was an intentional suppression of relevant information.”</p>
<p>In a statement, Mayer said she only learned that a large number of user files had been stolen in September 2016. “However, I am the CEO of the company and since this incident happened during my tenure,” she said, “I have agreed to forgo my annual bonus and my annual equity grant this year and have expressed my desire that my bonus be redistributed to our company’s hardworking employees, who contributed so much to Yahoo’s success in 2016.”</p>
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<p>How much Yahoo’s 8,500 employees will get if that that bonus is redistributed — or whether they will get higher payouts at all — is unclear. While some media outlets have said Mayer is “giving” her bonus to employees, she did not actually receive it, and only “expressed [her] desire” for that to occur. When asked whether employees will actually receive that money in the form of higher payouts or bonuses, a Yahoo spokeswoman said in an email the company was “still working on that piece” and had no further comment at this time.</p>
<p>The amount that could be divvied up is also unclear. The value of Mayer’s cash bonus for 2016 has not yet gotten final approval by the board’s compensation committee, according to a spokeswoman. Mayer’s 2012 employment agreement states that her target bonus is two times her salary, or $2 million, with an upper limit of four times her salary, or $4 million. In 2014, her bonus was $1.1 million, according to company fillings, a small portion of the value of her overall compensation, which is made up largely of equity awards and was valued at $42.1 million that year. (Like all executive compensation tallies, that number is based on accounting figures; Mayer’s vested actual realized pay was just 60 percent of that number in 2014.)</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time Mayer won’t receive a cash incentive bonus. Last year, the company said in its proxy statement that before the board made a decision, Yahoo’s highest paid executives “requested that they not be considered for a bonus” for 2015 because growth did not meet expectations. Therefore, the value of Mayer’s cash incentive bonus for 2015 was zero.</p> | Yahoo’s CEO giving up at least $12 million in compensation after company’s hacking probe | false | https://abqjournal.com/960583/yahoos-ceo-giving-up-at-least-12-million-in-compensation-after-companys-hacking-probe.html | 2 |
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<p>Ford Motor Co. chief executive Jim Hackett is shaking up his senior leadership team five months into the job, moves that could help him forge a fresh path for the nation's No. 2 auto maker.</p>
<p>The moves announced Tuesday include a number of departures, including John Casesa, 55, a longtime investment banker and auto analyst who was brought in under former CEO Mark Fields in early 2015. Mr. Casesa had been tasked with steering Ford's investment into new products and technologies.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Mr. Casesa's role won't be directly filled, a company spokeswoman said. Finance chief Bob Shanks will assume responsibility for global strategy, working closely with Mr. Hackett and Ford Chairman Bill Ford, she said.</p>
<p>The appointments, most of which take effect Jan. 1, start to round out an executive team that took shape when Mr. Hackett took the top job in May. His top lieutenants include Jim Farley, who is in charge of global markets; Joe Hinrichs, who is running global operations; and Marcy Klevorn, head of Ford's mobility division, a key unit that is exploring ways to commercialize transportation services.</p>
<p>Ford's board installed Mr. Hackett in May after ousting Mr. Fields amid questions about Ford's direction. Mr. Hackett has said he wants to speed decision making and "attack" costs at Ford, targeting $14 billion in annual savings within five years. Earlier this month he briefed investors on broad plans to accelerate Ford's development of autonomous vehicles and electric cars, though his outline left some wanting more specifics.</p>
<p>Ford's share price is flat this year while rival General Motors Co. has sped forward in recent months amid investor enthusiasm for its driverless-car program and other advanced technology.</p>
<p>GM shares hit a 52-week high Tuesday after the auto maker reported a third-quarter $3 billion loss related to the sale of its European business but posted operating profit that beat analysts' forecasts. Ford is set to report third-quarter results on Thursday.</p>
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<p>Ford also expanded the role of Kumar Galhotra, who has been head of the Lincoln luxury brand for the past three years. Mr. Galhotra will continue to lead Lincoln while also taking on the role of Ford's chief marketing officer, replacing Stephen Odell, 62, who is retiring.</p>
<p>The departures include a number of key appointees who ascended during the tenure of former CEO Alan Mulally, who was succeeded by Mr. Fields in 2014.</p>
<p>Also leaving is Bennie Fowler, 62, a vice president who has overseen Ford's product quality and new-model launches since 2010. He will be replaced by Linda Cash, 55, a company veteran who most recently has been running the company's European manufacturing operations.</p>
<p>Human resources head Felicia Fields, 52, will retire after more than 30 years at the company, Ford said. She will be replaced on an interim basis by Kiersten Robinson, 47, an executive director in HR.</p>
<p>Write to Mike Colias at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 24, 2017 13:26 ET (17:26 GMT)</p> | Ford CEO Jim Hackett Shuffles Senior Executive Ranks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/24/ford-ceo-jim-hackett-shuffles-senior-executive-ranks.html | 2017-10-24 | 0 |
<p>Since September 11, I have been speaking freely in the United States, a nation whose institutions have many democratic features. My free speech, which has been harshly critical of the leaders of the United States and their policies, has been disseminated widely through print publications, web sites, email, radio, and television. Most of the exposure has been in the alternative media, but I also have appeared in a few mainstream channels as well. Extrapolating from the approximately 4,000 email messages, letters, and phone calls I received in the three months after September 11 as a result of this free speech, it is reasonable to assume that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people heard my ideas.</p>
<p>So, while it is true that as a political dissident I have no chance at the access to mainstream channels that “reputable” commentators can expect when they repeat the conventional wisdom, my voice did get amplified by the combination of: new technologies that are relatively open and have not been completely commercialized; a limited but active and committed alternative press; marginal openings in the commercial-corporate media for dissidents who have some claim to “credibility” and can provide the appearance of balance; and the ease with which foreign publications and web sites could pick up my work (I am aware of translations of my work after 9/11 into Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Polish, and Swahili). I have been writing in public as a journalist or scholar since my junior year in high school, and in the last three months of 2001 my work may well have reached more people than the total of the preceding 27 years. This suggests a society that takes seriously the concept of free speech.</p>
<p>Yet after this experience, it has never seemed clearer to me that free speech is fragile and democracy is in danger of disappearing in the United States. This claim rests on two assertions:</p>
<p>1. Meaningful free speech is about more than the guarantee of a legal right to speak freely and the absence of governmental repression.</p>
<p>2. Meaningful democracy is about more than the existence of institutions that have democratic features.</p>
<p>To talk about the state of intellectual and political culture in the United States after September 11, I want to go back to the early 20th century and the life of one of my favorite radical Americans, Scott Nearing.</p>
<p>A radically good life</p>
<p>Nearing contended that three principles guided his life as a teacher, writer, and political activist: the quest “to learn the truth, to teach the truth, and to help build the truth into the life of the community.” Nearing began his teaching career in 1906 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he was a popular teacher, author of widely used economic textbooks, and well-known speaker on the lecture circuit. He was on his way to what looked like a successful academic career, if not for one problem. He took seriously those three principles, and from them he formulated a simple guide to action: “If there was exploitation and corruption in the society I should speak out against it.”[1]</p>
<p>That’s when the trouble started.</p>
<p>By 1915 Nearing had been fired by the Penn trustees. They gave no reason publicly, but there’s little doubt that his socialist views and participation in the movement to end child labor played a role. Many faculty members, including some who disagreed sharply with his politics, rallied to his defense, but to no avail. Rumors of a demand made by legislators of the university’s trustees — fire Nearing or lose a key appropriation — were never definitively proved but whatever the trustees’ reasons, arguments about academic freedom made by faculty did not save Nearing’s job. So Nearing moved on to the University of Toledo, a public university with a broader sense of its social mission. There he quickly became an integral part of the university and community — until 1917, when he was again fired, this time for his antiwar activity.</p>
<p>Nearing lost his job but not his voice, and he continued his writing and political activity, including an antiwar pamphlet titled, “The Great Madness: A Victory for American Plutocracy.” That landed him in federal court, one of the hundreds of political dissidents tried in the World War I era under the draconian Espionage Act. Charged in 1918 with attempting to cause insubordination and mutiny and obstructing recruiting, Nearing went to trial in February 1919 expecting to be convicted and ready to go to prison; sentences of five or 10 years were common at the time. But he was determined to use his trial as a platform to explain his antiwar and socialist views, which he did with his usual clarity and bluntness (often, by his account, frustrating his own attorney’s objections to inappropriate questions by prosecutors). His arguments from the witness stand apparently affected the jury; Nearing was found not guilty for writing the pamphlet, although the Rand School was convicted for publishing it and fined $3,000. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld what Nearing called a “unique decision.”[2]</p>
<p>Nearing remained a popular lecturer, filling halls as large as Madison Square Garden for solo lectures and debates with Clarence Darrow and other well-known political figures, until promoters would no longer book radical speakers. When shut out of lecture halls, Nearing moved to smaller venues, down to and including the living rooms of other radicals. He continued to write books and pamphlets, many based on his extensive travels around the world, focusing on both the corrupt nature of capitalism and imperialism, and the possibilities for a socialist future. In 1932 he turned his back on the modern economy and began a half-century of successful homesteading with his wife, Helen, first in Vermont and then in Maine.</p>
<p>After 1917 Nearing never held a university position and was blacklisted by mainstream publishers. But he continued his writing, speaking, and activism until he died at the age of 100 in 1983. He went to his grave unwavering in his commitment to his three principles and clear that his adherence to those principles had allowed him to live what he called simply “a good life.”[3]</p>
<p>The expansion of free speech and the contraction of democracy</p>
<p>I tell Nearing’s story in short form here for comparison to the contemporary political landscape. It is vital to understand both the ways in which formal guarantees of freedom of speech and inquiry have expanded in this culture in the 20th century and, at the same time, the ways in which American democracy has atrophied. Since Nearing was fired and hauled into court, legal protections for freedom of expression have expanded and the culture’s commitment to free speech has become more entrenched, which is all to the good. But at the same time, the United States today is a far less vibrant political culture than it was then. This is the paradox to come to terms with: How is it that as formal freedoms that allow democratic participation have expanded, the range and importance of debate and discussion that is essential to democracy has contracted? How is it that in the United States we have arguably the most expansive free speech rights in the industrial world and at the same time an incredibly degraded political culture? How did political freedom produce such a depoliticized culture?</p>
<p>First, the expansion of formal freedoms. On this front, the progress is clear. During World War I, Nearing was only one of about 2,000 people prosecuted under the Espionage act of 1917, which was amended with even harsher provisions in 1918 by what came to be known as the Sedition Act. Hundreds went to prison. The war-related suppression of expression also was merely one component of a wave of repression — which included not only prison terms but also harassment, deportation, and both state and private violence — that smashed the American labor movement and crushed radical politics. At that point in U.S. history it is fair to say that freedom of speech literally did not exist. There was no guarantee of public use of public space (such as streets or parks) for expression, and criticism of the government was routinely punished. In one of the most famous, and outrageous, cases of Nearing’s time, labor leader and Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs was forced to run his fifth and final campaign for president from a federal prison cell after he was sentenced to 10 years under the Espionage Act. His crime was giving a speech which pointed out, among other things, that rich men start wars and poor men fight them.[4]</p>
<p>The struggle to expand the scope of freedom of expression progressed through the century, although not without setbacks. Similar harshly repressive reactions surfaced again after World War II in the 20th century’s second major Red Scare. The Supreme Court upheld the criminalization of political discourse in what became known as the Communist conspiracy cases prosecuted under the Smith Act of 1940.[5] The law made it a crime to discuss the “duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government,” an odd statute in a country created by a revolution against the legal government of that day. It was not until 1957 that the Supreme Court reversed the trend in those cases, overturning convictions under the Act.[6] The 1960s and ’70s brought more cases that continued to make more tangible the promise of the First Amendment, including landmark decisions that made it virtually impossible for public officials to use civil libel law to punish sedition[7] and established that government could not punish incendiary speech unless it rose to the level of “incitement to imminent lawless action.”[8]</p>
<p>This history leaves the people of the United States much more free to speak critically of government action. For example, since September 11 many people critical of U.S. foreign and military policy have written and spoken in ways that would have without question landed us in jail in previous eras. A sampling of the titles of pieces I wrote, alone and with my political colleague Rahul Mahajan, gives a flavor of the nature of our dissent: “Why I will not rally around the president,” “U.S. just as guilty of committing own violent acts,” “War of lies,” “Saying goodbye to patriotism.”[9] In public speaking and in print, I have argued that the U.S. war on terrorism is a disastrous policy that has more to do with the maintenance of imperial credibility and the extension of U.S. dominance in Central Asia and the Middle East than battling terrorism. I have denounced patriotism as an intellectually and morally bankrupt concept.</p>
<p>I wrote all this as a faculty member of a public university in a politically conservative state. Although there was a letter-writing campaign aimed at getting me fired and I was publicly condemned as a “fountain of undiluted foolishness” by the president of my university, there has been no serious suggestion (that I know of) by anyone in the university that I should be fired. No law enforcement agents have knocked on my door. No judge or jury has passed judgment on me. While many readers who objected to my views have called for my firing, just as many of my critics have said they defend my right to speak even if they find what I say stupid or offensive. I have been called a lot of names, but no formal sanctions have been applied. And, more important, I have never seriously expected formal sanctions for these activities.</p>
<p>It is important to note here that I am white and American-born, with a “normal” sounding American name (meaning, one with European roots). The hostility toward some faculty members has not stayed within such civil boundaries, most notably Sami Al-Arian, the tenured Palestinian computer science professor at the University of South Florida who was vilified in the mass media and fired in December 2001 for his political views. It likely that not only my tenured status — I can’t be fired without cause, protection that few people in this economy have — but my white skin helped protect me.</p>
<p>In short: I live in a society that is more tolerant of dissidents, legally and culturally, than the one in which Scott Nearing lived. For this, I am grateful. We must always remember that those expansions of our freedom to speak were not gifts from enlightened politicians and judges, but a legacy of the struggles of popular movements — socialists, labor leaders, civil-rights organizers, and antiwar demonstrators.[10] The freedom of speech we enjoy today was won by people who were despised and denigrated in their time. History has vindicated them, but in their own time they suffered greatly.</p>
<p>So, in many ways I am better off than Scott Nearing; it is nice to know one has a steady job and won’t be hauled into court. But even though Nearing’s speech was more constrained than mine, in some ways I envy him. That may seem odd, given that in formal terms the United States of 1919 was in many ways a much less democratic nation — not only was free speech not guaranteed but the majority of the population (women and most non-white citizens) were denied the right to vote. Perhaps we shouldn’t call a nation a democracy when it refuses to allow the majority of adults to vote and the ultimate guardians of freedom (the Supreme Court justices) see nothing wrong with jailing a leading intellectual and president candidate for daring to question the judgment of his opponent.</p>
<p>But in another sense, the United States was a far more democratic society when Nearing took the witness stand in 1918. Many commentators have pointed out that democracy is more than simply the presence of certain political institutions and rules. The degree to which a society is democratic also can be judged by how extensive and active is the participation of citizens in the formation of public policy. Even though marginalized and oppressed people had more restrictions on them in 1919, they were in many ways more active participants in democracy, engaging in political discussion and attempting to assert their rights in public.</p>
<p>What does democracy look like?</p>
<p>To make sense of all this requires a definition of democracy. Here I want to discuss not simply the structure of the system but the role that people see themselves as having. One thing that always strikes me as I read accounts of the early part of the 20th century is the vibrancy of political life then compared with today. Far more people — ordinary people, not the chattering classes — saw politics as their birthright, not as an activity limited to politicians and intellectuals. Nearing describes boisterous meetings of thousands of people who came to hear speakers and argue politics in the first decades of the century. The Red Scare of the 19-teens and ’20s was designed to shut down that kind of political engagement, which was inconsistent with power’s conception of democracy. One of the clearest articulations of that conception came from Walter Lippmann, a leading journalist and intellectual of the first half of the 20th century. In a complex society, Lippmann asserted that people did not have the capacity to understand public affairs well enough to have an active role in policy formation:</p>
<p>“The individual man does not have opinions on all public affairs. He does not know how to direct public affairs. He does not know what is happening, why it is happening, what ought to happen. I cannot imagine how he could know, and there is not the least reason for thinking, as mystical democrats have thought, that the compounding of individual ignorances in masses of people can produce a continuous directing force in public affairs.”[11]</p>
<p>In such elitist conceptions of democracy, the role of citizens is basically to vote — to select which group of politicians and their allied experts they would like to run the country — not to be directly involved in the formation of public policy. In Lippmann’s words, “The public must be put in its place, so that it may exercise its own powers, but no less and perhaps even more, so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of the bewildered herd.”[12]</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the herd is not only bewildered but unruly, and it keeps jumping the fence; the spirit of participatory democracy doesn’t die easily. Another Red Scare was necessary in the late 1940s and ’50s. Those renewed challenges to power were beaten down by the end of the 1950s, though it turned out the politically quiescent times weren’t permanent, as an expanded notion of democracy re-emerged in the civil rights, women’s rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and ’70s. These popular struggles produced what those in power saw not as a democratic renewal but as a “crisis of democracy.”</p>
<p>Samuel Huntington, a political scientist with solid establishment credentials, warned that the problems of governance in the United States stemmed from what he called “an excess of democracy” and the solution could be found in “a greater degree of moderation in democracy.”[13] Citing universities and armies, he pointed out that not all institutions benefit from democratic structures and went on to explain that “the effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups.” Acknowledging that this “marginality” for some groups is “inherently antidemocratic,” Huntington still warned against “overloading the political system with demands which extends its functions and undermine its authority.” The answer is, “Less marginality on the part of some groups thus needs to be replaced by more self-restraint on the part of all groups.”[14]</p>
<p>In the real world, it usually turns out that restraint is expected from the “special interests” (defined as organized labor, students, women, minority groups, farmers — in other words, the bulk of the population) to make sure there are no restraints on the “national interest” (corporate shareholders, the managerial class, defense contractors, the generals). One might reasonably ask how this promotes democracy, but from the point of view of elites Huntington’s assessment is correct. If one is concerned about “governability,” defined as the ability of elites to make decisions unimpeded by the people, then the excesses of democracy that come with strong popular movements are indeed the heart of the crisis.</p>
<p>But, of course, there are other conceptions of the role of people in democracy. Political scientist C. Douglas Lummis suggests that “there is democracy where the people have the power.” But how to understand what is meant by “the people” and “the power”? For Lummis:</p>
<p>“[D]emocracy is not the name of any particular arrangement of political or economic institutions. Rather, it is a situation that political or economic institutions may or may not help to bring about. It describes an ideal, not a method for achieving it. It is not a kind of government, but an end of government; not a historically existing institution, but a historical project.”[15]</p>
<p>If that is true, then one would not speak of living in a democracy, but instead speak of the degree to which different features and processes of a society are democratic. That includes an assessment of the democratic character not only of governmental institutions but all institutions, private and public. It is in this sense that I talk of Nearing living in a more democratic America. By that, I mean simply that even though they faced more governmental impediments to exercising power, average people of that time were more actively engaged in political dialogue, in political life.</p>
<p>September 11</p>
<p>Here, I want to turn to the events after September 11 to talk about the state of political debate and discussion in the culture, using my experiences in the public sphere, not out of self-indulgence but because I think they shed some light on these issues.</p>
<p>I wrote my first pieces about terrorism and war the evening of September 11. Like most folks, I had spent most of the day watching the television coverage. Barely a few hours had passed before the talk of war was everywhere. Still trying to cope with the emotion of seeing the towers collapse, I had to cope with a second feeling — the realization that more innocents were going to die if the mad rush to war were not derailed. I have talked to many other progressive people who felt the same thing, an experience of dual anguish about what had just happened and what we feared was to come — a war we knew we likely would protest against, but one we knew would not easily be stopped.</p>
<p>That moment, for me, came at 11:43 a.m. central time on September 11, when I marked in my notes a comment by ABC’s Peter Jennings, ironically the least hawkish of the network anchors. “The response is going to have to be massive,” he said. I was monitoring the news on a television in my office, moving between the TV screen and my computer. I typed those words and stared at them on the screen. It was barely three hours after the planes had crashed into the towers. I stared at the word “massive.” There was no way to know what was coming, how the United States would respond. Yet it was impossible not to know, not to fear the coming of war. I remember burying my head in my hands and sobbing for several minutes before turning back to the television to watch the war unfold.</p>
<p>For the rest of the day I not only monitored television and the web, but spent time on the phone with fellow antiwar activists and left/progressive political colleagues and friends. The voices on the television — mostly government and military official, active and retired, and the pundits — talked of a war to show the world what was being called America’s “resolve.” My friends talked of their fear of a war that would show the world who was boss, to re-establish imperial credibility (that is, the ability to destroy at will). So late in the day I sat down to try to write. I had no expectation that what I wrote would show up in commercial newspapers; I was writing for the left/progressive web sites, where people like me would be looking for analysis. That piece was on the Common Dreams website[16] the next morning, but two days later it also ran in the Houston Chronicle, where the op/ed-page editors have an unusually strong commitment to airing a wide range of views. In that piece I tried to articulate how for many the grief over the attacks was mixed with a fear of American militarism, how the deaths of innocents in the United States sparked a fear for the deaths of innocents abroad. Many people told me the piece echoed their own feelings. Others were outraged, especially my assertion that the attacks of September 11 were “no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism — the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes — that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime.”[17]</p>
<p>I believe that sentence is accurate. I believe it is an honest assessment of history. And since September 11, I have continued to write and speak about that history and those truths, just as I did before September 11.</p>
<p>That writing found wide distribution through a number of web sites and email lists. I also wrote some pieces specifically for mainstream media outlets, though it was difficult to break into those pages. Because of the efforts of two progressive media projects that work to get critical analysis on the air (Mainstream Media Project[18] and the Institute for Public Accuracy[19]), I also appeared on about 80 radio shows — everything from a Canadian Broadcasting Company debate with a pro-war conservative, to interviews with DJs at commercial stations who weren’t quite sure how to make sense of me, to sympathetic discussions with progressive hosts on community radio stations.</p>
<p>So, my concern is not that I was not heard, or that the people who heard me had no reaction; many people told me how much they appreciated what Rahul Mahajan and I were doing. The problem was that I was writing, speaking, and being heard in a context for political action that was much different than in Nearing’s time. While it was possible for more people to hear me, being heard had far more limited effects, not only on the immediate question of the war but more generally on the political culture. When Scott Nearing spoke, he spoke to audiences in which a high percentage of people believed that political activity by people organized into mass movements could make a difference. Much of this was no doubt rooted in an understanding of the class divisions that structured American society, and the relationship of that structure to questions of war and imperialism.</p>
<p>I am not suggesting no one in the United States today is interested in building a mass movement around these issues. I am arguing, however, that many people — even many left/progressive people — do not believe there is any meaningful channel for action. Based on thousands of conversations and correspondences with such folks, it is my experience that many, perhaps most, do not belong to political organizations or are not active in political organizations. Given that social change in the history of this country has been largely the result of popular movements putting pressure on elites to enact progressive policies, the absence of such collective action is troubling. It does not mean there are no other possible avenues for social change apart from mass movements, though I can’t imagine what they might be and we should not be optimistic about alternatives without evidence. I have yet to hear any strategy for change that leads me to believe that mass movements are now irrelevant.</p>
<p>American propaganda</p>
<p>This state of affairs is not accidental. As the late sociologist Alex Carey puts it, “The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”[20] I would add to that the development of propaganda to protect state power, which is tightly interwoven with corporate power. Carey’s point is that people with power have been engaged in the process of pacifying the population through propaganda to make sure that the expansion of formal democracy — through greater expression and organizing rights, and an expanded franchise — does not result in a real democratization of the society, especially the economy.</p>
<p>Edward Bernays, often described as the father of the public relations industry, explained — from a celebratory point of view — how propaganda is “the executive arm of the invisible government.”[21] Who are those “invisible governors”? Those with “qualities of natural leadership” who “supply needed ideas” and hold “a key position in the social structure.”[22] The opening lines of his 1928 book Propaganda make clear how the system works:</p>
<p>“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds our molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized.”[23]</p>
<p>Bernays acknowledged that some aspects of the propaganda process — “the manipulation of news, the inflation of personality, the general ballyhoo by which politicians and commercial products and social ideas are brought to the consciousness of the masses” — are often criticized and can be misused. “But such organization and focusing are necessary to orderly life.”[24]</p>
<p>From a more critical view, Carey described this same propaganda project as “a 75-year-long multi-billion dollar project in social engineering on a national scale.” Carey’s study of the propaganda campaign suggests that starting in the 1930s American business leaders realized that they could not keep labor subjugated indefinitely through brute force. So, they turned to “a competition for public opinion via the mass media.”[25] Carey’s account of the operations of such groups as the National Association of Manufacturers shows how corporate leaders used advertising, public relations, media relations, and their influence on the educational system to deal with threats to their power.</p>
<p>In addition to campaigns for specific policies, there have been two key underlying messages to this propaganda in the past half-century. First, not only is capitalism the natural economic system and the only one compatible with democracy, but unions and other vehicles for popular organizing somehow disrupt what would be an otherwise harmonious system in which benevolent owners and hard-working managers labor selflessly to provide for customers and workers. Second, the United States is unique among world governments, past and present, in its pursuit of democracy and freedom in the world. While other nations act out of self-interest, the United States — that shining city on the hill — goes forward with a different mission; we are the world’s first benevolent empire.</p>
<p>The system that propagates these fictions is happy to concede that sometimes corporations do unpleasant things and sometimes politicians make mistakes, usually the result of the bad behavior of individuals. If the problems seem to go beyond individuals, we are assured that the miraculous workings of the market and democracy have corrected the problems and produced a change of course for the institutions involved. Unlike more totalitarian systems, this arrangement is flexible and better able to adapt to public pressure: absorbing and co-opting dissent when possible, coercing through relatively subtle methods when necessary, resorting to force and violence only when other methods have failed.</p>
<p>The effects of this relentless propaganda are clear. Many people accept the mythology, even when it is directly contradicted by their own experience. But more important, many of those who reject the mythology do not contest the naturalizing of the underlying system of domination, or can’t imagine how to contest it. After public talks about corporate domination or American imperialism, I get two common responses. One is a judgment rooted in the condescension of the comfortable: “Well, you are right, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it — people don’t want to change.” The other is a question framed by despair and isolation: “Is there anything I can do?”</p>
<p>My answer to the first is simple: There is nothing in human history that leads to the conclusion that people inherently crave subordination or cannot find ways to resist subordination. The response to the second is equally simple: Organize, become part of a movement. There is always something that can be done, but it must be done through collective action. The details of what to do are not quite so easy to work out, but it is clear they must be worked out with other people, not on one’s own. Those two questions sum up my point about the more democratic spirit of Scott Nearing’s times. People in Nearing’s audiences did not need to be told that humans were capable of independent thought and action. People did not have to be told that resisting concentrations of power required organizing. The political climate of the time took those as givens. By that I don’t mean that every single person believed in the power or wisdom of participatory democracy and mass movements, but simply that there was a more hospitable context for people to act. Nearing’s words were spoken to a more politically engaged culture. The words of contemporary antiwar activists after September 11 were spoken to a world in which none of those things could be taken for granted.</p>
<p>Given the contingencies of history and the difficulty in predicting the course of politics, definitive judgments are difficult to make. But based on my experience, I believe that even though my work may be read and heard by more people than Scott Nearing’s, it has far less impact. In a society in which free speech is in some sense irrelevant, public political life is little more than a sideshow. And if public political life is a sideshow, what do we say about the state of our democracy?</p>
<p>Beyond parody</p>
<p>I think our current situation constitutes a “crisis of democracy,” understood not in Huntington’s terms but in the sense used by legal scholar David Kairys in this summary of U.S. political life:</p>
<p>“[D]espite all the rhetoric about free speech and our democratic political process, a very large proportion of us — perhaps most — feel silenced and disenfranchised. There is a widespread recognition across the political spectrum that the American people lack the effective means to be heard or to translate their wishes into reality through the political process. There is, and has been for some time, a crisis of democracy and freedom that has been ignored by public officials and the media.”[26]</p>
<p>My only dispute with Kairys’ claim is the last sentence; I am not so sure this crisis has been ignored by public officials or the media. Rather, I think it is a state of affairs with which most public officials and the media are perfectly content because, no matter what the rhetoric, those centers of power either believe Lippmann was right or, in the case of the more crass, know Lippmann was wrong but find his conception of democracy useful in taming the “bewildered herd.” But if Kairys means there is a deeper crisis that even the officials don’t understand, a crisis of legitimacy, he may be right.</p>
<p>A few years ago I would have argued that the struggle for the soul of the nation was between radical democrats such as Lummis, who believe that the role of citizens in democracy should be as full participants, and elitist theorists of democracy such as Lippmann, who believe that such participatory ideals are not feasible and that citizens’ job is to ratify the decisions of experts and professional politicians through regular voting.</p>
<p>Today, we may be moving to a society in which even Lippmann’s impoverished notion of democracy seems idealistic, as we move ever deeper into a sense of democracy that treats policy proposals not as topics for discussion by the people but products to be sold to the people. How else to describe a situation in which the Bush administration can appoint an advertising executive to be Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, charged with the task of “selling” U.S. policy to the Muslim world? Charlotte Beers’ fitness for the job can be seen in her previous successes — Uncle Ben’s rice (“Perfect every time”), Head and Shoulders shampoo (“Helps bring you closer”) and American Express (“Don’t leave home without it”).[27] Of course politicians and policies have been sold like products for some time. But this was not only done without shame out in the open, but with some pride, to indicate how forward-thinking the administration was to realize it must win the hearts and minds in the world of Islam.</p>
<p>Such a state of affairs is beyond parody. But it is not beyond hope.</p>
<p>There is no reason to think that a revitalization of radical democracy is impossible. There is no reason to think that we are on the other side of some fault line in human history that makes collective action no longer relevant. Certain institutions in our society — some aspects of representative government, a media not controlled directly by the state, and vestiges of liberal education — have democratic features that can be used to fight concentrations of illegitimate authority. Other institutions — most notably corporate capitalism and the Pentagon — seem to me to be so fundamentally flawed that they will have to be swept away.</p>
<p>The hope that will make possible those changes is what Lummis called “public hope,” which he contrasted with “private hope.” Many Americans have private hope; they believe that they will continue to enjoy a comfortable standard of living in a reasonably predictable world. But they also have no expectation that the political system can or will change to become more open or fair. By contrast, Lummis described the state of public hope and the atmosphere of freedom that was in the air everywhere in the Philippines in 1985, before the fall of the Marcos dictatorship. There, a state of public despair was reversed:</p>
<p>“People begin to believe that public action can succeed. It doesn’t matter why they believe it — it could be for the wrong reason. When hope is shared by many, it becomes its own reason. Public hope is itself grounds for hope. When many people, filled with hope, take part in public action, hope is transformed from near-groundless faith (which it was in the state of public despair) to plain common sense.”[28]</p>
<p>Perhaps in the end, all politics is about where one chooses to put one’s faith. Prior to September 11, many Americans thought they could live comfortably by using the world’s resources without having to be part of the world or accountable to the rest of the world. Many Americans felt beyond the reach of the pain of the rest of the world. After September 11, such self-indulgence is no longer possible; we now know how vulnerable we all are. If in the past we were not moved by moral arguments about how our comfort required so much of the rest of the world to suffer, now there is a heightened measure of self-interest to be considered. It is difficult to ignore the fact that U.S. economic, military, and foreign policy must change. Our choices are fairly stark.</p>
<p>Shall we put our faith in advertising executives’ ability to sell to the rest of the world a story about why vast disparities of wealth exist, why the resources of the Third World should benefit primarily people in the West, and why we must on occasion unleash the bombers to maintain this system?</p>
<p>Or shall we put our faith in each other to find a different way, to stop living on top of the world and start living as part of the world?</p>
<p>[1] Scott Nearing, The Making of a Radical: A Political Autobiography (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2000), p. 56.</p>
<p>[2] Ibid., p. 117.</p>
<p>[3] Helen Nearing and Scott Nearing, Living the Good Life (New York: Schocken Books, 1970).</p>
<p>[4] Debs v. United States, 249 U.S. 211 (1919).</p>
<p>[5] Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951).</p>
<p>[6] Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298 (1957).</p>
<p>[7] New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).</p>
<p>[8] Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969).</p>
<p>[9] Available online at <a href="http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/freelance.htm" type="external">http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/freelance.htm</a> or <a href="http://www.nowarcollective.com/analysis.htm" type="external">http://www.nowarcollective.com/analysis.htm</a>.</p>
<p>[10] David Kairys, “Freedom of Speech,” in Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique, 3rd ed. (New York: Basic Books, 1998), pp. 190-215.</p>
<p>[11] Walter Lippmann, The Phantom Public (New York: Macmillan, 1927), p. 39.</p>
<p>[12] Ibid., p. 155.</p>
<p>[13] Samuel P. Huntington, “The United States,” in Michel Crozier, et al., The Crisis of Democracy (New York: New York University Press, 1975), p. 113.</p>
<p>[14] Ibid., p. 114. [15] C. Douglas Lummis, Radical Democracy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996), p. 22.</p>
<p>[16] <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/" type="external">http://www.commondreams.org/</a></p>
<p>[17] ROBERT JENSEN, “U.S. just as guilty of committing own violent acts,” Houston Chronicle, September 14, 2001, p. A-33.</p>
<p>[18] <a href="http://www.mainstream-media.net/" type="external">http://www.mainstream-media.net/</a></p>
<p>[19] <a href="http://www.accuracy.org/" type="external">http://www.accuracy.org/</a></p>
<p>[20] Alex Carey, Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), p. 18.</p>
<p>[21] Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda (New York: Horace Liverright, 1928), p. 20.</p>
<p>[22] Ibid., p. 9.</p>
<p>[23] Ibid.</p>
<p>[24] Ibid., p. 12.</p>
<p>[25] Carey, p. 20.</p>
<p>[26] Kairys, p. 11.</p>
<p>[27] Martin Fletcher, “Publicity queen sells America to the Muslims,” The Times of London, October 16, 2001, p. 3.</p>
<p>[28] Lummis, p. 156.</p>
<p>ROBERT JENSEN is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, a member of the Nowar Collective, and author of the book <a href="" type="internal">Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream</a> and the pamphlet “Citizens of the Empire.” This essay originally appeared in <a href="http://www.worlddialogue.org/dialogue.htm" type="external">Global Dialogue: Vol. 4, No. 2, “The Impact of 11 September”</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | The American Political Paradox | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/10/12/the-american-political-paradox/ | 2002-10-12 | 4 |
<p>The G-20 ministers declared their meeting in Pittsburgh a success, but as Rob Kall reports in OpEdNews.com, the meeting’s main success was to turn Pittsburgh into “a ghost-town, emptied of workers and the usual pedestrians, but filled to overflowing with over 12,000 swat cops from all over the US.”</p>
<p>This is “freedom and democracy” at work. The leaders of the G-20 countries, which account for 85% of the world’s income, cannot meet in an American city without 12,000 cops outfitted like the emperor’s storm troopers in Star Wars. And the US government complains about Iran.</p>
<p>The US government’s complaints about Iran have reached a new level of shrillness. On September 25 Obama declared: “Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow.” The heads of America’s British, French, and German puppet states added their two cents worth, giving the government of Iran three months to meet the “international community’s demands” to give up its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty to nuclear energy. In case you don’t know, the term “international community” is shorthand for the US, Israel, and Europe, a handful of arrogant and rich countries that oppress the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Who is breaking the rules? Iran or the United States?</p>
<p>Iran is insisting that the US government abide by the non-proliferation treaty that the US originated and pushed and that Iran signed. But the US government, which is currently engaged in three wars of aggression and has occupying troops in a number of other countries, insists that Iran, which is invading and occupying no country, cannot be trusted with nuclear energy capability, because the capability might in the future lead to nuclear weapon capability, like Israel’s, India’s, and Pakistan’s–all non-signatories to the nuclear proliferation treaty, countries that, unlike Iran, have never submitted to IAEA inspections. Indeed, at this very moment the Israeli government is screaming and yelling “anti-semite” to the suggestion that Israel submit to IAEA inspections. Iran has submitted to the IAEA inspections for years.</p>
<p>In keeping with its obligations under the treaty, on September 21 Iran disclosed to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it is constructing another nuclear facility. The British prime minister Gordon Brown confused Iran’s disclosure with “serial deception,” and declared, “We will not let this matter rest.”</p>
<p>What matter? Why does Gordon Brown think that Iran’s disclosure to the IAEA is a deception. Does the moronic UK prime minister mean that Iran is claiming to be constructing a plant but is not, and thus by claiming one is deceiving the world?</p>
<p>Not to be outdone in idiocy, out of Obama’s mouth jumped Orwellian doublespeak: “The Iranian government must now demonstrate through deeds its peaceful intentions or be held accountable to international standards and international law.”</p>
<p>The incongruity blows the mind. Here is Obama, with troops engaged in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan demanding that a peaceful nation at war with no one demonstrate “its peaceful intentions or be held accountable to international standards and international law.”</p>
<p>It is the US government and its NATO puppet states, and militarist Israel, of course, that need to be held accountable to international law. Under international law the US, its NATO puppets, and Israel are war criminal governments. There is no doubt about it. The record is totally clear. The US, Israel, and the NATO puppet states have committed military aggression exactly as did Germany’s Third Reich, and they have murdered large numbers of civilians. Following the Fuhrer’s script, “the great democratic republics” have justified these acts of lawlessness with lies and deceptions.</p>
<p>Rudy Giuliani, the former US Attorney who framed high profile victims in order to gain name recognition for a political career, keynoted a rally against Iran in New York on September 25. According to Richard Silverstein at AlterNet, the rally was sponsored by an Israeli lobby group and an organization with connections to an Iranian terror organization (probably financed by the US government) that calls for the violent overthrow of the Iranian government.</p>
<p>The efforts to build pressure for acts of war against Iran continue despite the repeated declaration from the IAEA that there is no sign of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and despite the reaffirmation by US intelligence agencies that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program years ago.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the US and Israeli governments, who are so solicitous of international law and holding accountable countries that violate it, have moved to prevent the report of <a href="http://www.forward.com/articles/114867/" type="external">Judge Richard Goldstone</a> from reaching the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Judge Goldstone’s report found Israel guilty of war crimes in its massive military assault against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.</p>
<p>The continuous efforts of the world’s two militarist-aggressor states–the United States and Israel–to demonize Iran was addressed by Ahmadinejad in his speech to the UN General Assembly (September 23). Ahmadinejad spoke of the assault on human dignity and spiritual values by the selfish material interests of the US and its puppet states. Seeking hegemony “under the mantle of freedom,” the US and its puppets use “the ugliest methods of intimidation and deceit” to disguise that they are “the first who violate” the fundamental principles that they espouse and apply to others.</p>
<p>Why, Ahmadinejad asked the UN General Assembly, do the countries of the world sit there while Israel murders and dispossesses the Palestinian people?</p>
<p>Why, asked Ahmadinejad, do the countries of the world sit there while the US, from thousands of miles away, sends troops to the Middle East, “spreading war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation in the whole region,” while blaming the countries that are suffering the West’s naked aggression?</p>
<p>Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly what most of the UN representatives already know, that “selfishness and insatiable greed have taken the place of such humanitarian concepts as love, sacrifice, dignity, and justice. . . . Lies have taken the place of honesty; hypocrisy has replaced integrity, and selfishness has taken the place of sacrifice. Deception in foreign affairs is called foresight and statesmanship, looting the wealth of other nations is called development efforts; occupation is said to be a gift that promotes freedom and democracy; and defenseless nations are subjected to repression in the name of defending human rights.”</p>
<p>It could not be put any clearer. However, if Ahmadinejad’s speech is reported by the US print and TV media, statements will be taken out of context and used to enrage the conservatives and Christian Zionists in order to unify them behind the Obama/Israeli assault on Iran.</p>
<p>America will not be satisfied until, like Rome, she has more enemies and more wars than she can survive.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of <a href="" type="internal">The Tyranny of Good Intentions.</a>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p /> | More Lies, More Deceptions | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/09/28/more-lies-more-deceptions/ | 2009-09-28 | 4 |
<p>By Alan Bean</p>
<p>While politicians apportion blame for the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children arriving at our border, the faith community looks for ways to help.</p>
<p>I over-simplify, of course. We confront a complex tangle of rhetoric and response, and there are plenty of exceptions on both sides of the politician/people divide.</p>
<p>Not all politicians want to send these unaccompanied children back to the chaotic violence that brought them to our border.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I heard Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announce that we would be welcoming at least 2,000 “border children” to our community. Jenkins told the crowd that 85 percent of these children would be released into the safe keeping of family members as soon as they were processed by immigration officials, but the remaining 15 percent needed a safe place where they could receive food, shelter and basic services. Last week, I attended a religious gathering hosted by a prominent Baptist megachurch at which Jenkins repeated his message to a room dominated by evangelical Christians.</p>
<p>On both occasions, the audience responded with a mixture of enthusiasm, surprise and relief. It felt so strange to hear a politician speaking from sheer conviction. Jenkins knew his initiative would be controversial, but when his own children asked him what he was going to do about the kids being warehoused at the border, his faith forced the issue. He knew what Jesus would do, and didn’t dare take the opposite position.</p>
<p>And then there’s Texas state representative David Simpson, a telegenic Tea Party conservative with a cowboy hat and a smile. Simpson outraged his constituency last week by urging a compassionate response to the border children. “I don’t believe in treating people who’ve crossed the border as a murderer,” Simpson told a town hall gathering dominated by anti-immigrant activists. “I do think there should be a path, a legal path, for naturalization or citizenship. We’re a nation of immigrants.”</p>
<p>Like Clay Jenkins, David Simpson is taking his cue from his religion. He quoted Proverbs 20:28, Deuteronomy 10:18-19 and Leviticus 19:33, passages that call for compassionate treatment of resident aliens, “for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Jenkins and Simpson are bucking the political consensus. The prevailing view is that we should send the children back to their homes without delay even if we have to rescind the 2008 William Wilberforce Act to do it.</p>
<p>The Wilberforce Act passed in the dying days of the George W. Bush administration, thanks to the tireless efforts of an unlikely coalition of conservative and liberal organizations. President Bush welcomed the legislation and it enjoyed the enthusiastic support of evangelical Christians. Immigrant children from Central America were being targeted by human traffickers and backers of the Wilberforce Act wanted the abuse to stop.</p>
<p>Six years later, Washington is on the verge of scrapping the bill. No one anticipated tens of thousands of children fleeing north to escape violent drug gangs in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Why should we care whether the children huddled in our detention centers are being forced into sexual slavery or into the drug trade? Children are children; pain is pain.</p>
<p>Prominent politicians on both sides of the ideological divide are holding their hands over their ears to block the elegant logic of compassion. These kids fled their homes because they feared for their lives and only in America can they be protected. But Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Boehner and both Democratic and Republican candidates for Texas governor want to toss the children back into the fire.</p>
<p>But the tide is turning. You can feel it. Last week, rallies were organized across the nation to protest the compassionate treatment of the border children. In some localities only a handful of protesters showed up at these events, and in many cities proponents of compassionate immigration reform outnumbered anti-immigration people two or three to one.</p>
<p>And the surprises just keep coming. Glenn Beck, the conservative firebrand, organized a caravan of provisions for the border children a few days ago. Beck feared his followers wouldn’t like the idea (they didn’t), but his heart forced his hand.</p>
<p>And then there’s the conservative curmudgeon George Will, telling the Sunday talk shows that America should welcome the border children with open arms.</p>
<p>“We ought to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America, you’re going to go to school and get a job and become Americans. We have 3,141 counties in this country. That would be 20 [children] per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these 8-year-old ‘criminals’ with their teddy bears is preposterous.” Sure, Will is taking a lot of flak for his outspoken views, but I suspect he is buoyed by a tangible shift in the public mood.</p>
<p>Much of the credit for changing hearts and minds on this issue goes to conservative Christians. Recently, a contingent of Southern Baptist leaders and Roman Catholic bishops toured the overcrowded immigration facilities at the border. Speaking at Parkhills Baptist Church in San Antonio, Russell Moore, the outspoken president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, pared the issue back to its theological core:</p>
<p>“As a follower of Jesus Christ, I recognize the answer to this question is going to be very complex politically and very complex socially. But what is not complex is the truth and reality that every one of these children are created in the image of God, and every one are beloved by God and they matter to God. That means they matter to us.”</p>
<p>The tidal wave of compassion is building deep in the heart of Texas. Cindy Noble Cole, a Dallas nurse, saw televised pictures of frightened children housed in what appeared to be dog kennels. So she filled 50 hygiene boxes for the kids and delivered them to Catholic Charities of Fort Worth. What began as a simple “this is what I’m doing” post on Facebook, quickly blossomed into Operation Matthew 25, a movement that has already sent 500 boxes of hygienic supplies, blankets, activity boxes and school supplies to the border.</p>
<p>I first became aware of Operation Matthew 25 when scores of Facebook friends replaced the usual glamour shot on their homepage with a little picture that reads, “I stand with refugee children: they are children.”</p>
<p>The folks highlighted above are all over the map politically and theologically, but they understand the elegant logic of Matthew 25: “Inasmuch as you did it unto these, the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it unto me.”</p>
<p>The growing people/politician divide on this issue is driven by a simple fact: politicians are running on fear; most people, when they’re sane and centered, are running on faith.</p>
<p>Compassion for the stranger and the alien is central to Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious teaching. Jesus opened his public ministry with a quotation from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to preach good news to the poor,” and he closed out his public ministry with the parable of the sheep and the goats. In the kingdom of God, Jesus says, many who are first will be last and the last will be first.</p>
<p>Distracted by politics and our ubiquitous culture war, Christians frequently lose sight of this teaching. But then we have all these children on our doorstep, and the words of Jesus come flooding back to us. And when that happens, we do what must be done.</p> | Preachers, politicians part ways at the border | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/preachers-politicians-part-ways-at-the-border/ | 3 |
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<p>George Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1007341/download" type="external">pleaded guilty</a>&#160;to making false statements to FBI agents. He admits he lied about repeated contacts during the campaign with people he believed had ties to the Russian government.</p>
<p>Papadopoulos is the first to plead guilty in the <a href="" type="internal">federal investigation</a> into&#160;the Russian government’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign associates were involved in those efforts.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s a crime to intentionally mislead federal prosecutors.</p>
<p>It’s not a crime, however, to give inaccurate information to the media and the public — intentionally or unintentionally. And there have been instances in which Trump administration and campaign officials have made public statements about issues concerning Russia that turned out not to be true.</p>
<p>Here we recap some of those instances.</p>
<p>A few days after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election,&#160;Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, told Interfax news agency that the Russian government maintained contact with&#160;Trump’s “immediate entourage” during the campaign.</p>
<p>“There were contacts,” Ryabkov told the news agency, as&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/world/europe/trump-campaign-russia.html" type="external">reported</a>&#160;by the New York Times on&#160;Nov. 10, 2016. “We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the campaign.”</p>
<p>“I don’t say that all of them, but a whole array of them supported contacts with Russian representatives,” Ryabkov said of Trump campaign officials,&#160; <a href="https://apnews.com/323f28f7f5e242498f43e4a7188336bc/trumps-election-boosts-kremlin-hopes-better-relations" type="external">as reported by the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/08/16/543901998/hope-hicks-named-interim-white-house-communications-director" type="external">Hope Hicks</a>, who was Trump’s campaign spokeswoman and now serves as the White House communications director, denied that there were contacts with “any foreign entity during the campaign.”</p>
<p>“We are not aware of any campaign representatives that were in touch with any foreign entities before yesterday, when Mr. Trump spoke with many world leaders. Those discussions were congratulatory and forward looking,” Hicks was quoted as saying in the Times.</p>
<p>In the Associated Press article, Hicks was quoted as saying, “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”</p>
<p>As for the president-elect, Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/818990655418617856" type="external">tweeted</a>&#160;on the day of the Times report: “FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCHHUNT.”</p>
<p>Months later, Fox News’ Chris Wallace <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2017/01/15/mike-pence-on-rep-lewis-comments-us-russia-relation-brennan-on-russia-dossier.html" type="external">asked</a> Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Jan. 15 if there was “any contact in any way between Trump or his associates and the Kremlim or cutouts they had.” Pence answered, “Of course, not. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?”</p>
<p>But we now know several Trump campaign officials were in contact with Russian government officials or representatives, or with people they believed were Russian government representatives, who offered government “dirt” on Clinton.</p>
<p>Papadopoulos, who became a campaign adviser in March 2016, met on April 26, 2016, in London with a professor&#160;who he “understood to have substantial connections to Russian government officials,”&#160;according to&#160; <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1007346/download" type="external">a statement from the Justice Department stipulating the facts of Papadopoulos’ guilty plea.</a></p>
<p>The professor, whose name has been withheld by the Justice Department, told Papadopoulos “that he had just returned from a trip to Moscow where he had met with high-level Russian government officials” who told him that the Russian government had “dirt” on Clinton “in the form of ‘thousands of emails,'” the Justice Department said.</p>
<p>Papadopoulos remained in contact with the professor, who also&#160;introduced&#160;Papadopoulos to two others: a “Female Russian National,”&#160;who Papadopoulos believed had “connections to Russian government officials,” and “an individual in Moscow … who told defendant Papadopoulos he had connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” according to the Justice Department statement.</p>
<p>In his initial interview with the FBI on Jan. 27, Papadopoulos lied about his contacts with the Russians. He claimed that he was told about the damaging emails before he joined the campaign and that his contacts with the professor and the female Russian national were inconsequential. Although asked about whether he met any other Russians, Papadopoulos failed to disclose that he also had contacts with the individual who purported to be with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</p>
<p>It is not clear from the Justice Department statement how long these contacts continued and what became of them. The so-called “Statement of the Offense” does not “constitute all of the facts known to the parties concerning the charged offense,” but rather just “selected events” to demonstrate that “sufficient facts exist” to prove the defendant is guilty, the Justice Department said.</p>
<p>Similarly,&#160;Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., had contact with Russians during the campaign with the understanding that the Russian government had damaging information about Clinton that could help the Trump campaign.</p>
<p>In a March 2017 interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump Jr. denied that he had ever “set up” any meetings with Russians and “certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.” Trump also denied that he ever discussed government policies related to Russia with any Russians.</p>
<p>Although this denial was unpublished at the time, the paper included it in a&#160; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner-manafort.html" type="external">July 8 story</a> revealing that Trump Jr. met with a Russian attorney linked to the Kremlin on June 9, 2016: “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did,” he said in that March interview. “But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.”</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">we wrote</a> on July 13, none of that turned out to be true.</p>
<p>In response to the Times’ July reporting, Trump Jr. initially issued a statement that misleadingly claimed the meeting was “primarily” to discuss “a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government.”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/884789418455953413" type="external">The</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/884789839522140166" type="external">emails</a> and a subsequent statement released by Trump Jr., however, revealed that the meeting was explicitly about promised dirt on the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee from a purported “Russian government attorney.” Furthermore, Trump Jr. was told in an email that it was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”</p>
<p>Trump Jr. responded by saying, “[I]f it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”</p>
<p>Not only did Trump Jr. represent the campaign at that June 9, 2016, meeting, but he requested that the president’s son-in-law and now senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, then-campaign convention manager, attend the meeting with him.</p>
<p>When first confronted by the <a href="" type="internal">New York Times</a> about the meeting, Trump Jr. issued a statement that was, at best, misleading by omission.</p>
<p>“It was a short introductory meeting,” Trump Jr.’s statement read. “I asked Jared [Kushner] and Paul [Manafort] to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.”</p>
<p>As we described above, there was more to the meeting than that statement let on.</p>
<p>On July 12, Jay Sekulow, an attorney on the president’s legal team, distanced the president from that statement, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/jay-sekulow-reacts-donald-trump-jrs-account-meeting-48584033" type="external">saying</a> on “Good Morning America”: “The president didn’t sign off on anything. He was coming back from the G-20. The statement that was released on Saturday was released by Donald Trump Jr., I’m sure in consultation with his lawyers. The president wasn’t involved in that.” Told that the New York Times reported that the president was involved, Sekulow said, “That’s incorrect.”</p>
<p>On July 16, Sekulow said on “ <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/meet-the-press-24-7/meet-press-july-16-2017-n783491" type="external">Meet the Press”:</a>&#160;“I do want to be clear — that the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement. It came from Donald Trump Jr.”</p>
<p>Those statements were later contradicted by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Aug. 1.</p>
<p>“The president weighed in, as any father would, based on the limited information that he had,” Sander said at a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/08/01/press-briefing-press-secretary-sarah-sanders-812017-4" type="external">press briefing</a>. “He certainly didn’t dictate, but like I said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do.”</p>
<p>On Jan. 10, the Senate judiciary committee held a hearing on Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.</p>
<p>Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat,&#160; <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4670548/sessions-franken-exchange" type="external">asked</a>&#160;Sessions: “[I]f there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?” Sessions replied, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have — did not have communications with the Russians.”</p>
<p>That turned out to be false. Sessions did have communications with the Russians.</p>
<p>At a March 2 press conference,&#160;Sessions&#160; <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?424859-1/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-recuses-russiatrump-campaign-investigations&amp;start=647" type="external">acknowledged</a>&#160;that he had at least two meetings with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., during the campaign — including a&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/02/what-jeff-sessions-said-about-russia-and-when/?utm_term=.9bffea52e2cd" type="external">Sept. 8, 2016, meeting</a> in the senator’s office.&#160;The attorney general said none of his meetings with Kislyak were related to the campaign, but he admitted he should have disclosed them.</p>
<p>“In retrospect, I should have slowed down and said, ‘But I did meet one Russian official a couple of times. That would be the ambassador,’”&#160; <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?424859-1/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-recuses-russiatrump-campaign-investigations&amp;start=647" type="external">Sessions said</a>&#160;at the press conference, which was held a day after the Washington Post broke the story of Sessions’ meetings with Kislyak during the campaign.</p>
<p>At the press conference, Sessions also announced that he would recuse himself from any matters involving the 2016 campaign, including the Justice Department’s investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign.</p>
<p>In May, the&#160;Washington Post&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?utm_term=.9429036e4d98" type="external">reported</a>&#160;that Kushner met during the transition in December 2016 with Kislyak and “discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin.”</p>
<p>Trump administration officials denied the report.</p>
<p>At a May 30 press briefing, then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/30/daily-press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-51" type="external">dismissed</a> the Post report as “not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources.”</p>
<p>Earlier that day, Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTranp/status/869554433830662144" type="external">retweeted</a> a “Fox &amp; Friends” tweet that said, “Jared Kushner didn’t suggest Russian communications channel in meeting, source says.”</p>
<p>However, Kushner would later confirm that he did suggest setting up a secure communications channel using Russian equipment.</p>
<p>In a&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/24/politics/jared-kushner-statement-russia-2016-election/index.html" type="external">statement</a>&#160;to congressional investigators on July 24, Kushner said Kislyak “wanted to convey information from what he called his ‘generals’” about “U.S. policy in Syria.” Kushner said the exchange of information did not occur during the transition because neither party could arrange a secure line of communication.</p>
<p>“I asked if they had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use where they would be comfortable transmitting the information they wanted to relay to General [Michael] Flynn [Trump’s national security adviser]. The Ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this information after the Inauguration. Nothing else occurred,” Kushner’s statement reads.</p>
<p>On Jan. 12, eight days before Trump’s inauguration, the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-did-obama-dawdle-on-russias-hacking/2017/01/12/75f878a0-d90c-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?utm_term=.6ab9df21895e" type="external">reported</a> that Flynn spoke with Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016. That was the same day that President Barack Obama <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/29/fact-sheet-actions-response-russian-malicious-cyber-activity-and" type="external">announced</a> sanctions against Russia in response to the country’s cyber operations aimed at interfering in the U.S. election. Trump administration officials denied that Flynn’s phone conversation was about the sanctions. But about a month later, the administration acknowledged the two men did talk about the sanctions.</p>
<p>The day of the Post story, Spicer&#160; <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4117850/Trump-NSA-director-arranges-telephone-talks-Trump-Putin-Russia-thaw-fast-track.html" type="external">said</a>: “The call centered on the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in. … That was it, plain and simple.”</p>
<p>On Jan. 15, Pence&#160; <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcript-january-15-2017-pence-manchin-gingrich/" type="external">said</a> on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that Flynn and Kislyak “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.” The timing of the call, Pence said,&#160;was “strictly coincidental.”</p>
<p>On Feb. 9, however, the Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/national-security-adviser-flynn-discussed-sanctions-with-russian-ambassador-despite-denials-officials-say/2017/02/09/f85b29d6-ee11-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_usrussia-%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&amp;utm_term=.9ed168645ebe" type="external">reported</a>, citing anonymous current and former government officials, that Flynn had “privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia” with Kislyak in December. Flynn, the Post reported, initially on Feb. 8 denied that he had discussed sanctions, but then backed away from that denial the following day.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Flynn told the newspaper on Feb. 9 that Flynn “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”</p>
<p>Flynn resigned on Feb. 13, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/flynn-resignation-ltr.pdf" type="external">saying in a letter</a> that&#160;“I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador.” The next day,&#160;Spicer <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/14/press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-2142017-12" type="external">confirmed</a>&#160;at his daily press briefing that Flynn and Kislyak spoke about the sanctions.</p>
<p>Spicer also told reporters in that briefing that the White House had known “for a few weeks” that the two men had talked about the sanctions. But on Feb. 10, President Trump <a href="" type="internal">said</a> he “didn’t know about it,”&#160;when asked about news reports on the matter by the&#160;Post&#160;and other outlets.</p>
<p>Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9. The White House <a href="" type="internal">issued a statement</a> that day saying that Trump acted “based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”</p>
<p>Rosenstein had written a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">two-and-a-half page memo</a>&#160;that cited Comey’s “handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary [Hillary] Clinton’s emails,” as a reason for Comey’s firing.</p>
<p>On CNN on May 9,&#160;White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1705/09/acd.01.html" type="external">said</a> the firing “had zero to do” with Russia and “everything to do with … Mr. Rosenstein.” The next morning, Conway again <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1705/10/nday.04.html" type="external">said</a> on CNN: “The president took the advice of the deputy attorney general who oversees the director of the FBI, brought those concerns to the attorney general who brought them to the president. And they made a decision to remove him.”</p>
<p>On MSNBC the same day, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders <a href="https://archive.org/details/MSNBCW_20170510_100000_Morning_Joe/start/2554.6/end/2577.3" type="external">reiterated</a> that Trump “took the recommendation [by Rosenstein] seriously. And he made a decision based on that.”</p>
<p>But Trump himself <a href="" type="internal">contradicted</a> the official White House statements. On May 11, the president said he thought about “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire Comey. He told&#160;NBC’s Lester Holt that “regardless of [Rosenstein’s] recommendation I was going to fire Comey.”</p>
<p>Rosenstein later would&#160; <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/read-rosensteins-full-opening-statement-on-comey-to-congress/" type="external">tell Congress</a> that he knew Trump was going to fire Comey before he wrote his memo. “On May 8, I learned that President Trump intended to remove Director Comey and sought my advice and input. Notwithstanding my personal affection for Director Comey, I thought it was appropriate to seek a new leader,” he said. Rosenstein&#160;then set out to write a memo outlining his concerns about Comey’s leadership.</p>
<p>Editor’s Note: Please see “ <a href="" type="internal">Timeline of Russia Investigation</a>” for more information on key events in the investigation.</p> | False Statements on Russia | false | https://factcheck.org/2017/10/false-statements-russia/ | 2017-10-30 | 2 |
<p>A few years ago, a Latina friend confided in me that while she of course abhors all acts of violence no matter what the skin color or nationality of anyone involved, when news of a violent incident breaks, she quietly hopes the assailant isn't black or brown. I know that pang of sadness, it's the potential that the news coverage will reinforce negative stereotypes about the ethnic groups she and I are part of and a feeling of responsibility to try and be a positive example -- particularly given that so few positive examples get anywhere near the same attention in American media. A Canadian Muslim man <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/1632047/montreal-muslims-denounce-attacks-as-violating-their-religion/" type="external">put it this way</a> after the terrorist attack at Ottawa's Parliament Hill last year: "We're doing our best to show the best of us."</p>
<p>Last week, Fox News anchor and Supreme Court correspondent Shannon Bream reinforced the source of that pang. During a discussion of the terrorist attacks on the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, Bream responded to a colleague's comment that "sometimes bad guys don't look like bad guys" by <a href="/blog/2015/01/07/after-paris-attack-fox-anchor-suggests-skin-col/202039" type="external">saying</a>:</p>
<p>That's my question about these guys.&#160;If we know they were speaking unaccented French and they had ski masks on, do we even know what color they were, what the tone of their skin was? I mean, what if they didn't look like typical bad guys? As we define them when we think about terror groups.</p>
<p>No one on the panel challenged her divisive stereotyping or spoke up to disagree. Nor did anyone note that terrorists and "bad guys" <a href="/blog/2014/12/22/fox-news-double-standard-for-right-wing-cop-kil/201978" type="external">come in all colors and cultural backgrounds</a>; that Islam is a religion not a skin tone. Or that those who actually know something about the Islamic faith consider these terrorists to be <a href="/blog/2015/01/11/how-the-media-treated-muslims-who-condemned-ext/202088" type="external">extremist perversions of their religion</a> -- the same way most Americans don't consider the Ku Klux Klan as a Christian organization despite what they may call themselves. &#160;</p>
<p>Two days later on Twitter, Bream's boss <a href="/blog/2015/01/11/how-the-media-treated-muslims-who-condemned-ext/202088" type="external">piled on the stereotyping</a>. News Corp. and 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch essentially asserted that the young man in Canada is right to be concerned. Even if you are a Muslim trying to do your best to "show the best" the leader of one of the world's largest media conglomerates views you one of the bad guys, responsible for the behavior of extremist Muslims, aka "their" people.&#160;</p>
<p>Mr. Murdoch's rhetoric divisively alienates rather than engages Muslims who both regularly denounce and are often the victims of Islamic terrorism.&#160;</p>
<p>The insinuation that peaceful Muslims are ignoring the issue is one <a href="/research/2015/01/07/what-fox-wont-show-you-muslim-leaders-are-conde/202049" type="external">often promoted</a> by Murdoch's employees. Sounding just short of an accusation of indifference or tacit endorsement of the vicious attack, Fox News host Bob Beckel complained last week that Muslim organizations&#160;were "being quiet"; at that very moment, an interview with a spokesperson from just such a group denouncing the barbarism in Paris was available to view on FoxNews.com. Globally, organizations ranging from the Arab League to Al-Azhar to the French and British Muslim Councils were actually quick to condemn the violence and those who perpetrated it; and they continue to speak out. &#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Europe's right wing, anti-migrant, anti-Muslim political parties are <a href="http://time.com/3659471/paris-terror-attack-europe-far-right-populist/" type="external">using the attacks</a> in Paris last week to gain support for policies aimed at halting immigration to Europe from "specific" countries. The nativist groups are scapegoating Muslim immigrants, blaming the violence on migration policies, multiculturalism, and a failure to "assimilate," as well as the broader rise of Islamic extremism throughout Europe and an overall decline in society.</p>
<p>Sounding a bit like American conservatives' "order at the border" rhetoric, the fanatically <a href="/blog/2010/12/20/wapo-claims-to-want-conversation-about-religion/174550" type="external">anti-Muslim</a> Dutch politician Geert Wilders <a href="http://time.com/3659471/paris-terror-attack-europe-far-right-populist/" type="external">said</a>, "We have to close our borders, reinstate border controls, get rid of political correctness, introduce administrative detention, and stop immigration from Islamic countries."</p> | How Right-Wing Scapegoating Hurts The Fight Against Terrorism | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/01/12/how-right-wing-scapegoating-hurts-the-fight-aga/202096 | 2015-01-12 | 4 |
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<p>LOS ANGELES (CA)National Catholic Reporter“This man is the reason we just got that legislation through,” said California State Sen. Joe Dunn, acknowledging police officer Manuel Vega.</p>
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<p>Vega -- doing his bread-and-water Holy Week fast outside the Los Angeles cathedral in an attempt to convince Cardinal Roger Mahony to release all the internal archdiocesan files on priests -- had testified in Sacramento.</p>
<p>One result: A 12-month clock is running on the filing of criminal charges in sex abuse cases. The clock that has plagued investigating detectives was recently modified.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, as the sidewalk conversations proceeded, former priest Michael Stephen Baker in Los Angeles Superior Court was being ordered to criminal trial on 29 felony charges of molestation. Baker, one of more than 100 Los Angeles priests being investigated, told Mahony in the mid-1980s that he had molested children, but Baker continued to periodically serve in parishes. He retired in 2000.</p>
<p>Dunn, a leader in Sacramento in seeing that two statutes of limitation on sex abuse cases were lifted, said, “The issue is on everyone’s radar screen in Sacramento. We’ll stay involved as a legislative body until the victims have had their day in court.”</p> | Battling the �bunker mentality� | false | https://poynter.org/news/battling-bunker-mentality | 2003-04-26 | 2 |
<p>“I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage. For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go. These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack. Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow.” – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tedcruzpage/posts/10153999687717464" type="external">Ted Cruz</a>, responding the tabloid’s claim that he has made sexytime with five women not married to him in the name of White Jesus.</p>
<p>Cruz may actually be right. Two weeks ago the National Enquirer <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-lands-endorsement-the-national-enquirer" type="external">endorsed Trump</a>.</p>
<p>In this stranger-than-fiction presidential race, Trump has been championed by a publication that has recently purported to “out“ a number of celebrities, discovered unsubstantiated cheating scandals, prematurely predicted the imminent deaths of Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Cher and Oprah Winfrey (just to name a few), claimed repeatedly that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were on the brink of divorce, that the Obama daughters were embroiled in a cocaine scandal, and accused comedian Bill Cosby of plotting the murder of his own son.</p>
<p>“Trump Must Be President,” blasts a headline from within the Enquirer’s pages, which includes a list of reasons why the real the estate mogul should be elected, including: “He will chase down illegal immigrants and toss out the criminals who came streaming through our open borders.” That particular statement is ironic, considering the fact that the Enquirer recently published a racially insensitive article about one of its reporters dressing as a “terrorist” and crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, in their estimation damning evidence of how porous it is.</p>
<p>This is the first presidential endorsement ever made by the tabloid.</p> | Ted Cruz: Donald Trump Is Using His National Enquirer Henchmen To Smear Me With Adultery Claims | true | http://joemygod.com/2016/03/25/ted-cruz-donald-trump-is-using-his-national-enquirer-henchmen-to-smear-me-with-adultery-claims/ | 2016-03-25 | 4 |
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<p>**Bumped Up From TAMWire. Posted By dachiemama**</p>
<p>Voter fraud encouraged in Louisiana. Republican-turned Senator Elbert Guillory talks about it and shows video.</p>
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<p>Who’s up for a fresh addition to the ever-expanding “voter fraud is a Republican myth” file? Democratic officials and campaign operatives have been caught on tape encouraging illegal voting on several occasions in recent election cycles, and anti-voter ID activists have literally cheered a swing-state poll worker who was convicted of the practice. Our latest installment comes to us from the Bayou State and features a Democratic mayor and former State Senator, who dispensed some pro tips on voting at a rally in advance of Saturday’s run-off election:</p>
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<p>Related:</p>
<p>Washington Post: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mary-landrieu-deep-souths-last-senate-democrat-must-fend-for-herself/2014/12/03/7bfa56e8-7b20-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html" type="external">Mary Landrieu, Deep South’s last Senate Democrat, must fend for herself</a></p> | true | http://tammybruce.com/2014/12/voter-fraud-in-louisiana.html | 0 |
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<p><a href="" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/10/03/scotus-refuses-rescue-obama-executive-amnesty/" type="external">http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/10/03/scotus-refuses-rescue-obama-executive-amnesty/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/10/03/scotus-refuses-rescue-obama-executive-amnesty/" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/10/03/scotus-refuses-rescue-obama-executive-amnesty/" type="external">SCOTUS Refuses to Rescue Obama on Executive Amnesty</a></p>
<p>The United States Supreme Court has denied President Obama's request to rehear the executive amnesty case. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/330201017032791/posts/1265729560146594" type="external">Source</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">SEALS Forced to Abort Hostage Rescue While Obama Vacationed</a>September 11, 2016In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">What a bunch of hooey. Since the Nov. 8 results, Mr. Obama has taken a blow tor...</a>December 30, 2016In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Trump has been installing well-known opponents of the deal to key national secur...</a>December 6, 2016In "Conservative Blogs"</p> | SCOTUS Refuses to Rescue Obama on Executive Amnesty | true | http://libertyfederation.org/scotus-refuses-to-rescue-obama-on-executive-amnesty/ | 2016-10-04 | 0 |
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<p>BlackBerry Priv. Image source: BlackBerry.</p>
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<p>For a company that's been on the ropes in the smartphone arena for years, it should have seemed obvious that targeting the high-end flagship market with a bold new device was a little overly ambitious. BlackBerry is just now learning that lesson with its $700 Priv. After some brisk early sales to loyalists and early adopters, Priv sales promptly plunged and handset revenue came in worse than expected last quarter.</p>
<p>In a recent interview with The National, CEO John Chen recognized the strategic misstep.</p>
<p>Moving on downChen didn't pull any punches, admitting, "The fact that we came out with a high-end phone [as our first Android device] was probably not as wise as it should have been." The $700 price tag was too much for BlackBerry's core enterprise customer base, with many saying that they would only pay $400. Just this month, BlackBerry cut the Priv's price by $50 to $650.</p>
<p>Considering the fact that the Android camp has long been incredibly price competitive due to intense hardware commoditization pressures, BlackBerry ambitiously thought that it could use its security strengths as differentiation. While the Priv is differentiated in this respect, it was misguided and overconfident to think that this would give BlackBerry an extraordinary level of pricing power.</p>
<p>In response to market demands, Chen continues to reiterate that BlackBerry is preparing to release at least two mid-range Android phones later this year. One model will be a full touchscreen, while another will carry the quintessential hardware keyboard that BlackBerry is famous for.</p>
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<p>The BB10 bombshellThe writing has been on the wall for BlackBerry 10 for quite some time, and Chen has now conceded that there are no plans to launch BB10 devices in the future. The company will continue to support it and release updates for the beleaguered operating system, but this is the end of the road for BB10.</p>
<p>This comes as a wide range of companies and developers continue to <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/23/facebook-pulls-the-plug-on-blackberry-10.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">drop support Opens a New Window.</a> for BB10. Besides, BB10 had always relied heavily on ported Android apps to begin with, which was <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/14/how-long-can-blackberry-piggyback-on-google.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">never a sustainable Opens a New Window.</a> strategy since it risked turning the platform itself into little more than a wrapper for an Android emulator.</p>
<p>Stop BlackBerry if you've heard this one beforeChen has said on numerous occasions that he may be forced to exit the handset business if it continues hemorrhaging money. The CEO echoed these sentiments again in the interview, saying that while he loves the business, BlackBerry needs to make handsets profitably in order to justify the hardware operations. Chen has been saying this for years, and continues to say it.</p>
<p>This has long been, and continues to be, a fine line to walk with consumers, since BlackBerry does still enjoy a very passionate and vocal user base that remains loyal to the platform. As the ranks of these loyalists continues to shrink, BlackBerry must face the reality that it lost the platform war long ago.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/11/its-official-blackberry-10-is-dead.aspx" type="external">It's Official: BlackBerry 10 Is Dead Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=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> | It's Official: BlackBerry 10 Is Dead | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/11/it-official-blackberry-10-is-dead.html | 2016-04-11 | 0 |
<p>This might come as a shock to a handful of people: The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has released its analysis of GOP presidential contender Rick Perry’s proposed tax plan and has come away with the distinct impression that Perry’s approach favors Americans in the upper income-earning brackets, regardless of his plan’s distracting put-it-on-a-postcard accessorizing <a href="" type="internal">gimmick</a>. –KA</p>
<p>Los Angeles Times:</p>
<p>Rick Perry’s so-called flat tax plan would drain a titanic sum from the federal treasury and largely benefit wealthy taxpayers over those in the lower brackets.</p>
<p>That’s the upshot of an analysis of the plan by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Perry last week unveiled the plan, which calls for an optional 20% flat tax on personal income but would also allow taxpayers to remain in the current system.</p>
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<p>[…] If Perry’s plan were to be enacted, the government would see a revenue shortfall in 2015 of almost $1 trillion, a 27% drop, under current law, in which the Bush-era tax breaks expire. Under current administration policy, which calls for the tax cuts to stay in place, the plan would cost the government $570 billion.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-perry-tax-study-20111101,0,5022265.story?track=rss" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Surprise: Study Says Perry's Tax Plan Would Help the Rich | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/surprise-study-says-perrys-tax-plan-would-help-the-rich/ | 2011-11-02 | 4 |
<p>Most people need to make an effort to save for retirement if they want to retire in financial security. Some workers have access to various types of deferred compensation plans during their careers, and most workers can also use a Roth IRA to save for retirement on their own. Your choice of retirement saving plan can seriously affect your post-work finances, and some workers should consider a combination of both deferred compensation and Roth IRA savings to meet their goals.</p>
<p>The idea behind deferred compensationDeferred compensation plans are designed to allow workers to shelter income from tax. By agreeing not to receive compensation directly in the form of a salary, workers can avoid having to pay tax on that money until the IRS deems them to have taken possession of it.</p>
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<p>Technically, employer-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k) accounts, which are also known as qualified plans, are a form of deferred compensation. However, when most people talk about deferred compensation, they're referring instead to what are known as "nonqualified deferred-compensation plans." These nonqualified plans have different attributes, some of which are advantageous and some of which can be detrimental.</p>
<p>The main advantage of nonqualified deferred compensation is that you're not subject to the contribution limitations of 401(k) plans and similar accounts. Employers typically tailor the provisions of a deferred-compensation plan specifically for key employees. By doing so, they can reward employees for achieving certain business milestones and encourage them to continue working toward reaching long-term strategic goals.</p>
<p>The main problem with nonqualified deferred compensation is that there must be a substantial risk of forfeiture of the money in the plan, because where there is no risk of losing that money, the employee is deemed to have received it, and is therefore taxed on it. Nonqualified deferred-compensation plans often have requirements like minimum tenure in a job, and if the company goes bankrupt, the assets of the nonqualified plan are subject to creditors' claims just like other assets. By contrast, qualified money in a 401(k) plan is held in a separate account and gets protection from the company's creditors.</p>
<p>How Roth IRAs fit in With both nonqualified deferred compensation and traditional 401(k) plans, contributions are excluded from taxable income at the time of the initial contribution. However, they're included in taxable income later on, typically when the worker withdraws them. That can create high tax liability in retirement.</p>
<p>Roth IRAs, however, don't work that way. They provide no up-front tax deduction, but distributions in retirement are typically treated as tax-free, having no impact on taxable income.</p>
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<p>By having a combination of Roth IRAs and deferred compensation, you can manage your tax situation more effectively. If you want less taxable income in a given year, you can withdraw more from a Roth IRA and less from deferred-compensation arrangements. If accelerating your taxable income makes sense, you can do the opposite. Either way, having both types of retirement savings available gives you options that you won't get with one or the other by itself.</p>
<p>This article is part of The Motley Fool's Knowledge Center, which was created based on the collected wisdom of a fantastic community of investors. We'd love to hear your questions, thoughts, and opinions on the Knowledge Center in general or this page in particular. Your input will help us help the world invest, better! Email us at <a href="http://mailto:[email protected]?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Thanks -- and Fool on!</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/2016/04/04/roth-ira-vs-deferred-compensation.aspx" type="external">Roth IRA vs. Deferred Compensation</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days</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> | Roth IRA vs. Deferred Compensation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/04/roth-ira-vs-deferred-compensation.html | 2016-04-04 | 0 |
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<p>As of Thursday, ExxonMobil is allowed to run election-day phonebanks. The Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that <a href="/mojo/2010/01/supreme-court-eviscerates-campaign-finance-restrictions" type="external">corporations should be free to make independent expenditures in political campaigns</a>. The decision overturned most existing campaign finance law and dealt a severe blow to supporters of campaign finance restrictions. But it didn’t take reformers by surprise. Groups like Common Cause, Public Campaign, and Change Congress have been anticipating this defeat for months. In a <a href="/mojo/2009/12/campaign-finance-reformers-bracing-citizens-united-decision" type="external">confidential internal memo</a> obtained by Mother Jones last year, Common Cause and Public Campaign warned, “Without an aggressive media effort, reporters will likely call a bad decision in Citizens United another sign that campaign finance reform is a fool’s errand.” That effort continued with a massive press call midday Thursday, with the presidents of the top reform groups going on at length about their problems with the decision. “It is a disaster,” said Nick Nyhart, the president of Public Campaign, told reporters. “It’s an immoral decision that puts the Roberts court on the side of Wall&#160;Street and big money lobbyists.” That was typical.&#160;</p>
<p>So what’s the reformers’ plan? Last month, Mother Jones <a href="/mojo/2009/12/campaign-finance-reformers-bracing-citizens-united-decision" type="external">reported</a> that disparate reform groups had been merging staff, budgets, and agendas to coordinate their efforts to deal with the fallout of the Supreme Court decision and to push for public financing of elections. On Thursday’s press call,&#160;Bob&#160;Edgar, the president of Common Cause, confirmed that strategy. “For the past year we’ve moved towards having a specific campaign with a campaign structure,” he said. “A whole host of groups have put together a common staff, a common budget, a common agenda to get the financial resources together and the staffing in place.” Common Cause and Public Campaign, the two older, DC-based groups, combined their campaign finance reform teams late last year to focus their energy on pushing for publicly-funded elections. They’ll be the good cops, playing the Washington “inside game,” working with Capitol&#160;Hill allies like Rep. John&#160;Larson (D-Conn.) to sign up more support for reform. Change Congress, the newer organization founded by Larry Lessig, will play the bad cop, attacking members of Congress who don’t support reform and accusing them of corruption.&#160;</p>
<p /> | Campaign Finance Refomers: What Now? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/campaign-finance-refomers-what-now/ | 2010-01-21 | 4 |
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<p>With Google parentAlphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) fourth-quarter report now behind it, the company's <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2017/01/30/8-must-see-facts-highlight-alphabet-incs-2016.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">robust revenue growth and its promising traction in hardware and cloud-computing Opens a New Window.</a> are getting some time in the spotlight. But there's one other item in the company's most recent quarterly report investors may want to take the time to consider: A key change in the way Alphabet will be calculating its non-GAAP results.</p>
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<p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p>
<p>In a surprising move, Alphabet explained in its fourth-quarter earnings call that it will no longer exclude stock-based compensation from its non-GAAP results. The change will weigh on non-GAAP earnings per share, but Alphabet believes it will give investors a better view of the company's regular operations.</p>
<p>Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat explained the change in the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.</p>
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<p>The change sheds light on the growing cost of Silicon Valley-based talent for tech companies in the Bay Area. Stock-based compensation at companies such as Alphabet and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) have grown consistently in recent years, so much so that the two companies have recently <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/06/what-investors-can-learn-from-facebooks-buyback-pr.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">announced share repurchase programs Opens a New Window.</a> seeming to simply aim at offsetting the dilutive impacts of expected stock-based compensation.</p>
<p>To see what this growing stock-based compensation looks like, consider Alphabet and Facebook's stock-based compensation in the third quarter of 2016 compared to the third quarter of 2015.</p>
<p>As one of the biggest tech companies in the world, Alphabet, with the change to its non-GAAP reporting, highlights how regular stock-based compensation has become in Silicon Valley, and it sets a new precedent for other companies to make a similar change.</p>
<p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p>
<p>Facebook could very well be one of the next big tech giants to make a similar move. And if it's not planning on making the same change soon, it should. The social network appears to be on the same page as Alphabet when it comes to expecting significant stock-based compensation in the years ahead. Facebook CFO David Wehner said in the company's third-quarter conference call that he "anticipates 2017 will be an aggressive investment year."</p>
<p>Wehner explained: "Adding top engineering talent remains one of our key investment priorities as we continue to execute on our three-, five- and 10-year roadmap. We will continue to invest in our ability to recruit top technology talent both in the Bay Area and beyond."</p>
<p>Almost certainly not a coincidence, Facebook announced a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/18/facebook-inc-to-buy-back-6-billion-of-its-own-shar.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">$6 billion repurchase program Opens a New Window.</a> -- an authorization about equal to what the company will probably spend on share-based compensation in 2017 -- shortly after it said Bay Area hiring would drive an aggressive investment year for the company.</p>
<p>The bottom line? Bay Area share-based compensation expenses are growing in tandem with tech company revenues, and it's time for companies to stop excluding stock-based compensation from non-GAAP results -- starting with Alphabet, and maybe Facebook soon after.</p>
<p>Find out why Facebook is one of the 10 best stocks to buy now</p>
<p>Motley 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=a6ce2d8a-4ba9-4d81-aafd-536e61e38279&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=a6ce2d8a-4ba9-4d81-aafd-536e61e38279&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>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDanielSparks/info.aspx" type="external">Daniel Sparks Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and 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> | Alphabet, Inc. Is Making an Important Change to Non-GAAP Reporting | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/30/alphabet-inc-is-making-important-change-to-non-gaap-reporting.html | 2017-01-30 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of available jobs posted by U.S. employers rose in December to the highest level in 14 years, a sign recent strong job gains will likely continue. Employers also filled more jobs and more employees quit, two additional signs of an improving labor market.</p>
<p>Job openings rose 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted 5 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That is the most since January 2001. Total hires also increased 1.9 percent to 5.1 million, the most in more than seven years.</p>
<p>The number of quits rose 2.1 percent to 2.7 million. More quits are a sign of confidence in the economy, because people typically quit when they have another job lined up, usually at higher pay, or are optimistic that they can find a new position.</p>
<p>More openings are usually followed by greater hiring. Businesses appear increasingly confident that the economy will continue to improve and are seeking more staff to meet stronger demand.</p>
<p>"Job openings continue to rocket," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. "Wage gains will follow."</p>
<p>The figures echo last week's jobs report, which showed that businesses are hiring workers at a robust pace and even paying more to attract them. Employers added 257,000 jobs in January, and wages rose at the fastest one-month pace in six years.</p>
<p>Hiring has accelerated in the past three months to the fastest pace since 1997. Employers have added more than 1 million jobs just since November.</p>
<p>Those figures are a net total of job gains or losses. Tuesday's data on job openings is from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS, which provides a more detailed look at the job market than the monthly employment report. It also includes figures for total hiring, as well as the number of quits and layoffs.</p>
<p>The step-up in hiring has encouraged many Americans to start looking for work. More than 700,000 people began searching for jobs in January, the most in six years. Not all found work, lifting the number of unemployed and pushing the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent.</p>
<p>There are now just 1.7 unemployed workers, on average, for each available job. That's back to pre-recession levels and down from a peak of 6.7 in July 2009, after the recession ended.</p>
<p>That ratio suggests employers may soon need to offer more pay to attract workers. Average hourly wages rose 0.5 percent in January, the jobs report said, the most in six years. Still, in the past 12 months, average pay rose just 2.2 percent. That's below the 3.5 percent level that is consistent with a strong economy.</p>
<p>There are always some open jobs even in a depressed economy. Job vacancies fell to 2.1 million in July 2009, the lowest in the 14 years the data has been tracked.</p>
<p>Vacancies have soared 29 percent in the past year, a sizzling pace. That raises questions about why they aren't being filled more quickly.</p>
<p>Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago, has calculated that employers took an average of 25.6 working days to fill openings in November, the latest data available. That's near the 26 days in July, the most in the 14 years of JOLTS data that Davis uses.</p>
<p>The extended hiring period partly reflects positive trends: As the number of unemployed has fallen from a peak of over 15 million, companies have to take longer to find suitable workers.</p>
<p>But there are also downsides, including greater frustration for job-seekers. The skyrocketing number of vacancies also suggests that employers may not consider the millions of Americans who have given up looking for work, or those who work part-time but would prefer full-time jobs, as viable candidates.</p>
<p>"The relentless increase in job openings continues, signaling that employers are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable staff," Shepherdson said. "Companies appear not to want to hire people who have not worked for some time. Sooner or later, they will have to pay more in order to entice people away from their current employers."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber" type="external">http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber</a> .</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of available jobs posted by U.S. employers rose in December to the highest level in 14 years, a sign recent strong job gains will likely continue. Employers also filled more jobs and more employees quit, two additional signs of an improving labor market.</p>
<p>Job openings rose 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted 5 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That is the most since January 2001. Total hires also increased 1.9 percent to 5.1 million, the most in more than seven years.</p>
<p>The number of quits rose 2.1 percent to 2.7 million. More quits are a sign of confidence in the economy, because people typically quit when they have another job lined up, usually at higher pay, or are optimistic that they can find a new position.</p>
<p>More openings are usually followed by greater hiring. Businesses appear increasingly confident that the economy will continue to improve and are seeking more staff to meet stronger demand.</p>
<p>"Job openings continue to rocket," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. "Wage gains will follow."</p>
<p>The figures echo last week's jobs report, which showed that businesses are hiring workers at a robust pace and even paying more to attract them. Employers added 257,000 jobs in January, and wages rose at the fastest one-month pace in six years.</p>
<p>Hiring has accelerated in the past three months to the fastest pace since 1997. Employers have added more than 1 million jobs just since November.</p>
<p>Those figures are a net total of job gains or losses. Tuesday's data on job openings is from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS, which provides a more detailed look at the job market than the monthly employment report. It also includes figures for total hiring, as well as the number of quits and layoffs.</p>
<p>The step-up in hiring has encouraged many Americans to start looking for work. More than 700,000 people began searching for jobs in January, the most in six years. Not all found work, lifting the number of unemployed and pushing the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent.</p>
<p>There are now just 1.7 unemployed workers, on average, for each available job. That's back to pre-recession levels and down from a peak of 6.7 in July 2009, after the recession ended.</p>
<p>That ratio suggests employers may soon need to offer more pay to attract workers. Average hourly wages rose 0.5 percent in January, the jobs report said, the most in six years. Still, in the past 12 months, average pay rose just 2.2 percent. That's below the 3.5 percent level that is consistent with a strong economy.</p>
<p>There are always some open jobs even in a depressed economy. Job vacancies fell to 2.1 million in July 2009, the lowest in the 14 years the data has been tracked.</p>
<p>Vacancies have soared 29 percent in the past year, a sizzling pace. That raises questions about why they aren't being filled more quickly.</p>
<p>Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago, has calculated that employers took an average of 25.6 working days to fill openings in November, the latest data available. That's near the 26 days in July, the most in the 14 years of JOLTS data that Davis uses.</p>
<p>The extended hiring period partly reflects positive trends: As the number of unemployed has fallen from a peak of over 15 million, companies have to take longer to find suitable workers.</p>
<p>But there are also downsides, including greater frustration for job-seekers. The skyrocketing number of vacancies also suggests that employers may not consider the millions of Americans who have given up looking for work, or those who work part-time but would prefer full-time jobs, as viable candidates.</p>
<p>"The relentless increase in job openings continues, signaling that employers are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable staff," Shepherdson said. "Companies appear not to want to hire people who have not worked for some time. Sooner or later, they will have to pay more in order to entice people away from their current employers."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber" type="external">http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber</a> .</p> | US job openings rise to 14-year high; job quits, hiring up | false | https://apnews.com/amp/fdd64bb0e0444720863718a292bd4bbc | 2015-02-10 | 2 |
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<p>Oct 24 2003</p>
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<p>By Don Mackay</p>
<p>A PERVERT headmaster was jailed yesterday after a former colleague single-handedly fought to have his "soft" sentence increased.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Carney had been given a community rehabilitation order at a crown court despite admitting sexually abusing young boys.</p>
<p>But three appeal judges ordered him to be locked up for 15 months after teacher Marilyn Hawes launched a campaign to put him behind bars for his sick crimes. ...</p>
<p>The judges said Carney should have been caged at his Reading crown court trial in June where he pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual abuse. One of his victims, an altar boy, was 12 when targeted in 1976. He preyed on the youngster again four years later. A second teenager was molested in the 90s.</p>
<p>Neither boy was a pupil at the church school where Carney worked, St Sebastian's primary in Wokingham, Berks.</p>
<p>But both were the sons of families the sick head, a former Franciscan monk, had become friends with.</p> | PAEDOPHILE HEAD JAILED THANKS TO CAMPAIGN | false | https://poynter.org/news/paedophile-head-jailed-thanks-campaign | 2003-10-24 | 2 |
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<p>LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Four people killed in an air ambulance crash west of Las Cruces in August died from a combination of burns, smoke inhalation and blunt force trauma, according to autopsy reports.</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">The Las Cruces Sun-News reported</a>Saturday that the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator’s findings were released earlier this month.</p>
<p>Tests also found that pilot Juan A. “Freddy” Martinez did not have drugs or alcohol in his system.</p>
<p>Federal safety investigators said in September that the twin-engine aircraft got the wrong fuel at the Las Cruces airport before it took off and crashed Aug. 27.</p>
<p>All three crew members and one patient were killed.</p>
<p>The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report did not say whether the incorrect fuel is what led to the crash.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Autopsy reports in Las Cruces plane crash released | false | https://abqjournal.com/500654/autopsy-reports-in-las-cruces-plane-crash-released.html | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending slowed in October as the hurricane-related boost to motor vehicle purchases faded, while underlying price pressures pushed higher for a second straight month, suggesting a recent disinflationary trend has probably run its course.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Commerce Department said on Thursday consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.3 percent last month after a downwardly revised 0.9 percent jump in September.</p>
<p>Consumer spending in September posted its largest gain since August 2009 and was buoyed by drivers in Texas and Florida replacing automobiles destroyed when Harvey and Irma slammed the states in late August and early September.</p>
<p>Economists polled by Reuters had forecast consumer spending increasing 0.3 percent in October after a previously reported 1.0 percent rise in September. Spending on long-lasting goods like autos fell 0.1 percent last month after surging 2.9 percent in September. Spending on nondurable goods rose 0.2 percent and outlays on services increased 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>Though overall inflation subsided as disruptions to the supply chain following the hurricanes eased, underlying price pressures increased again at a steady clip in October.</p>
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<p>The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 0.2 percent in October after a similar gain in September. The so-called core PCE increased 1.4 percent in the 12 months through October, matching September's rise.</p>
<p>The core PCE has undershot the Fed's 2 percent target for nearly 5-1/2 years. Signs that the disinflationary trend from earlier this year was probably over bolsters expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates next month. The U.S. central bank has increased borrowing costs twice this year.</p>
<p>Fed Chair Janet Yellen told lawmakers on Wednesday that she believed the recent weak inflation readings likely reflected "transitory factors." Yellen acknowledged the low inflation rates "could reflect something more persistent."</p>
<p>With underlying inflation rising, the so-called real consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent in October after increasing 0.5 percent in September.</p>
<p>That will probably do little to change economists' expectations of solid consumer spending growth in the fourth quarter because September's strong gain put consumption on a higher growth trajectory.</p>
<p>Consumer spending grew at a 2.3 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, slowing from the April-June quarter's brisk 3.3 percent pace. Spending is, however, coming at the expense of savings as income growth remains moderate.</p>
<p>Personal income rose 0.4 percent last month after advancing by the same margin in September. Wages rose 0.3 percent last month. Savings increased to $457.3 billion in October from $429.9 billion in the prior month, which was the lowest level since August 2008.</p>
<p>The saving rate increased to 3.2 percent after falling to 3.0 percent in September, which was lowest since December 2007. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)</p> | US consumer spending slows in October, inflation picking up | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/30/us-consumer-spending-slows-in-october-inflation-picking-up.html | 2017-11-30 | 0 |
<p>Ankara.</p>
<p>In September 2010, the UN General Assembly’s Human Rights Council issued a report on the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara. It concluded that the blockade of the Gaza Strip was unlawful; that the blockade constituted collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza; that the interception of the Mavi Marmara “cannot be justified even under Article 51 [self defence] of the UN Charter”; that the attack involved violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law; and that the flotilla posed no threat to Israeli security.</p>
<p>Out of the secretary-general’s office has now come a report that turns all these earlier findings upside down. Ban Ki Moon’s Panel of Inquiry finds that the naval blockade was imposed “as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law”. This is extraordinary, first of all, seeing that the Panel of Inquiry had already conceded that “the panel is not a court” and was not asked to determine legal issues “or to adjudicate on liability”.</p>
<p>On the question of legality, no-one on the panel spoke with authority on maritime law or the laws of war. Geoffrey Palmer, the chairman of the panel of four, is a professor of international environmental law. He has no known experience of the Middle East and the background which might help him understand why Israel feels itself entitled to attack ships on the high seas, the Mavi Marmara being not the first or the only one. Alvaro Uribe, the vice-chair and a strong supporter of Israel, is a former president of Colombia. His tenure in office was marked by widespread abuse of human rights, including torture and murder. Both he and Palmer were chosen to sit on the panel from a list of names approved by Israel.</p>
<p>The report goes on to say that “whether what occurred here was legally defensible is important, but in diplomatic terms is not dispositive of what has become an important irritant not only in the relationship between two important nations but also in the Middle East generally.” Nine Turks (one a Turkish American) were shot dead on the Mavi Marmara. Most of them were shot at close range in what the Human Rights Council report described as summary executions. More plainly they might be more accurately described as murders. Furkan Dogan, a young man of 19, was shot from behind, and apparently finished off at point blank range by being shot in the face as he lay wounded on the deck. A video circulating on the Internet showed an Israeli soldier standing over someone lying on the deck — apparently Furkan Dogan — and kicking him repeatedly before aiming a gun at his face. To reduce all of this to an irritant spoiling relations between Israel and Turkey and the smooth flow of international relations is surely offensive, insensitive and grossly insulting to the families of the dead.</p>
<p>The Panel of Inquiry, while describing the violence as disproportionate, avoided the issue of culpability at the command or individual level. It noted that “no satisfactory explanation has been provided to the panel by Israel for any of the nine deaths.” The panel apparently did not feel itself obliged to come up with explanations of its own. While emphasising the need to find solutions “that will allow Israel, Turkey and the international community to put the incident behind them”, it clearly did not regard the allocation of responsibility as the best way to reach this point. As Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has observed, the attack on the Mavi Marmara was “grounds for war”. If any of the actors acted recklessly it was Israel; if any acted with restraint it was Turkey and in asking for an apology Turkey was staking out a minimal position. By refusing to issue an apology, Israel has allowed no one to put the incident behind them.</p>
<p>While running through the findings of the Turkish commission of inquiry and Israel’s Turkel committee — a whitewash of the entire Israeli operation from start to finish — the panel made no independent attempt to reconcile the contradictions between the two reports or come up with its own conclusions about what actually happened. All of its findings flowed on logically from its judgment that the blockade was legal and that the Israelis were justified in enforcing it. Thus the passengers had no right to defend themselves against armed attack. Thus the Israelis did have the right to subdue them even if the level of force they used was “disproportionate”. Evidence placed before the Human Rights Council suggests that the Israelis had already shot two passengers dead from helicopters before the boarding party landed on the upper deck of the Mavi Marmara. The panel offered no opinion on this crucial point. The attack took place on the high seas, 72 miles from land and 64 nautical miles from the blockade zone. The panel concluded that the boarding of the Mavi Marmara so far from the blockade zone was “excessive and unreasonable” but had nothing to say about its possible illegality even within the context of the laws of war and naval blockades.</p>
<p>Without producing any evidence the panel implied that some of the Mavi Marmara passengers may have been carrying guns. It also casts doubts on the motives of the flotilla organisers and suggested that had they been more concerned with getting aid to the Palestinians rather than provoking a confrontation with Israel and drawing attention to themselves, in its view, the ship could have docked at Ashdod so that the aid could have been taken to Gaza by land. In other words, the aid should have been placed in the hands of the blockading power for it to decide what should be sent to Gaza and what should be withheld.</p>
<p>The panel claimed that Israel’s effective control over the Gaza Strip ended when disengagement “was completed” in 2005. Here the Panel of Inquiry admitted that it was relying on a decision of the Supreme Court of Israel. It made no independent judgment of its own. In fact, although Israel withdrew from Gaza, it has never disengaged. The territory has been fenced off and is blockaded on land and from the air and sea. Its population lives under the constant threat of Israeli military attack from sea, land and air. The onslaught of 2008-09 took the lives of 1400 people, most of them civilians. Massive destruction was caused to civilian and government infrastructure. Israel tightly controls the flow of goods into Gaza through the land gates and has repeatedly bombed the tunnels through which Gazans have been able to obtain the necessities of life from Egypt. Taking the view that Gaza and Israel “are both distinct political and territorial entities”, the panel said the conflict between the Hamas government and Israel should be treated as an international one. In fact, Gaza, historically, culturally and politically, is an inseparable part of the territory of Palestine. The conflict is not between the Hamas government and Israel but between the Palestinian people and Israel. It does not have the “trappings of an international armed conflict” because Palestine is not a state and has no army, navy or air force. Whether in Gaza or the West Bank the Palestinians have virtually no means of defending themselves against Israeli assaults.</p>
<p>The Panel declared that the naval blockade would only be illegal if its imposition was to starve or collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza. Attempting to split the naval blockade from the land blockade, the panel says that “there is no evidence before the Panel that would permit a finding confirming the allegations that Israel had either of those intentions [starvation and collective punishment] or that the naval blockade was imposed in retaliation for the takeover of Hamas in Gaza or otherwise. On the contrary, it is evident that Israel had a military objective.” In fact, again, the two Israeli blockades (along with control of air space) constitute an integrated strategy designed to impose Israeli control over everything going into Gaza, including arms, food, medicine and so on, as well as anything going out, including fishing boats. The land blockade was imposed immediately after the election of the Hamas government in January 2006. The naval blockade was a logical extension of this policy, and cannot be separated from it. The dominant view internationally is that the blockade of Gaza, with no division being made between the land blockade and the sea blockade, violates international law in several respects.</p>
<p>The panel claimed that Israel has faced and is facing a threat to its security from militant groups within Gaza. Of course, this is true even if the threat is minimal compared to the threat Israel poses to the security of Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza. The panel argues that Israel has the right to self defence against armed attack from outside its territory. As Israel is the only state in the world which has never defined its borders, and as the territory falling within the 1949 armistice lines includes more than 20 per cent of Palestine set aside for the Arab state in the partition resolution of 1947, but seized by Zionist militias in 1948, what constitutes Israeli territory remains an interesting but unresolved point.</p>
<p>Furthermore, most Gazans are refugees (or the children of refugees) from somewhere else in Palestine. They were driven into Gaza during the ethnic cleansing of 1948. Not far from the fence penning them in, settlements have been built on their land and the ruins of their villages. Their right of return to the place of their birth has been affirmed in numerous UN resolutions specific to Palestine as well as conventions dealing with universal human rights. Israel has never complied with any of these resolutions. Yet it is Israel and not its victims to which Ban Ki Moon’s panel grants the right of self-defence.</p>
<p>Turkey has rejected this biased report out of hand. It has sent the Israeli ambassador home and will now ask the International Court of Justice to issue a legal opinion on the blockade of Gaza and thus the attack on the Mavi Marmara. If Israel is now friendless in the region it only has itself to blame. Protected by the US from ever having to face up to the consequences of its actions, it is now waking up to the cold light of a new day.</p>
<p>Jeremy Salt&#160;is associate professor in Middle Eastern history and politics at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey.</p> | “An Important Irritant” | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/09/30/an-important-irritant/ | 2011-09-30 | 4 |
<p>FBN's Cheryl Casone on the European Union ordering Amazon to pay back $294 million in taxes.</p>
<p>The European Union ordered the world's largest online retailer Amazon on Wednesday to pay back about 250 million euros ($294 million) in taxes to Luxembourg, saying it had been given an unfair tax advantage from 2003.</p>
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<p>"Luxembourg gave illegal tax benefits to Amazon. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazon's profits were not taxed," European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.</p>
<p>The 250 million euros is less than an estimate of 400 million which sources told Reuters last year that Vestager had calculated at that time. However, the Commission added that the exact amount of back-payment would still need to be calculated by Luxembourg authorities.</p>
<p>Amazon is the latest big U.S. multinational company to be reined in by the EU competition regulator, which also told technology group Apple&#160; pay back arrears of up to 13 billion euros ($15.3 billion) to Ireland.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop)</p> | EU orders Amazon to pay back $294 million in taxes to Luxembourg | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/04/eu-orders-amazon-to-pay-back-294-million-in-taxes-to-luxembourg.html | 2017-10-04 | 0 |
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<p>An off-duty deputy recently shot a man after catching him in the act of… how should I say:&#160;coitus,&#160;in&#160;a subdivision pool. The cop eventually&#160;shot the man after confronting a couple engaged in sex in the Boca Raton, Florida community pool.</p>
<p>According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s official statements on the matter, the deputy walked into the pool area of the complex where he also lives. It was sometime just after midnight on Saturday. The officer found the couple, and asked them to leave the premises.</p>
<p>The couple left, but returned later. The male victim then supposedly approached the deputy while he was sitting in a lounge chair in the area, which he no more supposed to be sitting in at that hour, than the other couple was supposed to be in the pool (in any capacity). The deputy claims that the man “hovered over” him in a “threatening” way. The result? The cop ended up shooting the man.</p>
<p>The deputy claims that the two then got in a fight, and when the officer started apparently losing, he shot the man.</p>
<p>The victim has been hospitalized in currently in critical condition.</p>
<p>The deputy has&#160;not&#160;been fired, nor reprimanded, but is on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure,&#160;not&#160;a punishment.</p>
<p>(Article by M.B. David)</p> | Cop Shoots Man After Catching Him Having Sex In Pool | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/cop-shoots-man-in-pool/ | 2014-03-30 | 4 |
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<p>PORTALES — The closing of an iconic restaurant in Portales has saddened area residents who say it was more than the food, it was a community staple.</p>
<p>The Portales Dairy Queen closed its doors for good on Oct. 4. Owner Susan Houtchens said it was a hard decision to make, but family health issues took priority and pushed her to retire.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We’ve had it in our family for over 25 years,” Houtchens said. “The experience has been a wonderful blessing to the whole family.”</p>
<p>She decided to put the restaurant on the market about a year ago in hopes that she could sell it as a Dairy Queen because she said the restaurant has a special meaning in her family and the community.</p>
<p>“Franchises are hard to pick up and get into,” she said.</p>
<p>With no buyers interested in purchasing the property, Houtchens said they are forced close it down.</p>
<p>“We prayed about it and just decided,” she said. “Some of the most special people in our lives are people we met through the restaurant.”</p>
<p>Houtchens said she’s received an overwhelming amount of support from the community about their decision.</p>
<p>“We have gotten so many letters and cards,” she said.</p>
<p>She says the eatery has played an important role in the community by sponsoring local sports teams and holding celebrations at the restaurant. She also donated food to community events.</p>
<p>“One young man (who) played for a team we sponsored came by and wanted a last Blizzard and it was just very emotional for me,” Houtchens said. — This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Portales Dairy Queen Closure Saddens Residents | false | https://abqjournal.com/139182/portales-dairy-queen-closure-saddens-residents.html | 2012-10-17 | 2 |
<p>EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A male massage therapist who was convicted last year of assaulting a woman in the southern Illinois community of Edwardsville during a massage in 2015 has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bnd.com/news/local/crime/article196160324.html" type="external">Belleville News Democrat</a> reported that the sentenced imposed on Tuesday on 58-year-old Ronnie Blom on Litchfield by Madison County Judge Neil Schroeder came after Blom's victim implored him to consider the safety of women everywhere."</p>
<p>In October, the 42-year-old victim testified and three other women offered similar testimony about being sexually assaulted by Blom. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding Blom guilty.</p>
<p>Blom did not speak during the sentencing hearing.</p>
<p>EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A male massage therapist who was convicted last year of assaulting a woman in the southern Illinois community of Edwardsville during a massage in 2015 has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bnd.com/news/local/crime/article196160324.html" type="external">Belleville News Democrat</a> reported that the sentenced imposed on Tuesday on 58-year-old Ronnie Blom on Litchfield by Madison County Judge Neil Schroeder came after Blom's victim implored him to consider the safety of women everywhere."</p>
<p>In October, the 42-year-old victim testified and three other women offered similar testimony about being sexually assaulted by Blom. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding Blom guilty.</p>
<p>Blom did not speak during the sentencing hearing.</p> | Southern Illinois massage therapist gets 16 years in assault | false | https://apnews.com/amp/ce0e08d88a9d4a84a7f3d8f0b6166645 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/10/03/jimmy-kimmel-vegas-republicans-praying-god-forgive/" type="external">Breitbart:</a></p>
<p>Dismissing as inadequate <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/02/president-donald-trump-first-lady-melania-trump-lead-moment-silence-prayer-las-vegas-shooting-victims/" type="external">&#160;calls for prayers</a>&#160;for the victims by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the&#160;Jimmy Kimmel Live&#160;host said:&#160;"they should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country."</p>
<p>Kimmel railed against lawmakers who "won't do anything about this because the NRA has their balls in a money clip," insisting that their "thoughts and your prayers are insufficient."</p>
<p>The comic responded to those saying there was nothing that could have been done to stop Sunday's attack. "I disagree with that intensely," Kimmel said, "because of course there's something we can do about it."</p>
<p>"There are a lot of things we could do about it. But we don't," he continued, "which is interesting because when someone with a beard attacks us, we tap phones, we invoke travel bans, we build walls, we take every possible precaution to make sure it doesn't happen again. But when an American buys a gun and kills other Americans, then there's nothing we can do about that."</p> | Jimmy Kimmel on Vegas: 'Republicans should be praying for God to forgive them' | true | https://spartareport.com/2017/10/jimmy-kimmel-vegas-republicans-praying-god-forgive/ | 2017-10-03 | 0 |
<p>Jared A. Ball is a father and husband. After that he is a multimedia host, producer, journalist and educator. Ball is also a founder of "mixtape radio" and "mixtape journalism" about which he wrote I MiX What I Like: A MiXtape Manifesto (AK Press, 2011) and is co-editor of A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X (Black Classic Press, 2012). Ball is an associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland and can be found online at <a href="http://imixwhatilike.org/" type="external">IMIXWHATILIKE.ORG</a>.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. January 17 this year is Martin Luther King Day. Couple of quotes from Martin Luther King that you might not hear at most celebrations go like this:
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<p />~~~
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<p />MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I'm convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism, and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. . . . Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world, declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
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<p />~~~
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<p />JAY: Martin Luther King called for "hostility" against racism, militarism, poverty, not for civility, yet these days civility is the watchword. Now joining us to talk about what happens to revolutionaries, people with revolutionary spirit, when they have days named after them, is Jared Ball. Jared Ball is an assistant professor of communications studies at Morgan State University, an independent journalist, and for four years on a American aircraft carrier. Thanks for joining us, Jared.
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<p />JARED BALL, ASST. PROF., MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: It's a pleasure.
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<p />JAY: So what's your take on what's happened to the memory of Martin Luther King?
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<p />BALL: Well, annually it's distorted, reimaged, and repackaged into something that the state can continue to use. It's taken away from the King that actually existed and turned into something that will support the policies that he was actually advocating against, sort of in perpetuity. So every year we're asked to forget some of the quotes that you just played, and we're asked to forget his criticisms of capitalism, of racism and militarism, and we're asked to forget that he was a supporter of world revolution, we're asked to forget that he was a staunch supporter of labor, and as you said or as you played in the clip, that he was advocating for divine dissatisfaction with the state and all of its harmful effects, and the violence of the state, the violence of its economic models as they impact people here and abroad.
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<p />JAY: So why does the conservative icon president, Reagan, sign a declaration to have a Martin Luther King Day?
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<p />BALL: Well, I mean, in many ways it's--you know, Howard Zinn used to say that omission is worse than lying. If you lie to someone, you leave a trail; if you omit something, you leave no trail for people to investigate and discover the truth. Dr. King was probably too big to fully omit, and there was enough of a groundswell in this country and around the world, given even the anti-apartheid movement and other struggles that were happening at the time that were, you know, sort of capturing the minds of good, well-meaning people all around the world and in this country, a strong push to get some sort of commemoration for somebody who was so well loved that you can't omit him. So let's honor him. We'll prop him up every year. He did it begrudgingly, of course. I mean, Reagan didn't--. You know. And then every year we'll remind people of a version of King that didn't actually exist but that will help people settle into an acceptance of what's still going on, all of which, again, King was aggressively trying to organize us to wipe out.
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<p />JAY: I guess one part of it is good, 'cause at least it makes, every year, people talk about this and gives us an opportunity to have a discussion. But is this also about trying to eliminate the significance of that, you know, civil rights uprising in the 1960s, just how profound that was?
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<p />BALL: Well, in part it's to do just that. It's also to give the impression that that movement was successful and it could be put into the dustbins of history. You know, sort of from time to time, you know, happily we can look back on it and smile and have fond memories of the hard times that we've overcome and so on and so forth, and then, of course, forget that almost everything that Dr. King was trying to get us to get rid of was actually worsening--and to this day is in some aspects still worsening.
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<p />JAY: Then what do you make of President Obama's back-and-forth with Reverend Wright, the renowned speech he made on race, but more or less said that this sort of systemic racism that Wright was talking about is of the past, and people like Wright, he kind of hinted at, have their heads back in the 1960s?
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<p />BALL: Well, I mean, this is the problem, that when people raise, you know, a substantive criticism of what's happening now (and look at the conditions of black people, of working people, of Latinos in the world today) and say, hey, a lot of the things that King was saying make sense today, are no, no, let's not look at that. You know, this is not the day of King. You know, we had King's civil rights movement. You got the Civil Rights Act. You got the voting rights act. Let's move on. You know, you don't have the sign, the overt signs of an apartheid state that existed in this country. You know.
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<p />JAY: Well, unless you go to certain cities which have essentially apartheid districts.
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<p />BALL: Well, I mean, in reality, socially, in terms of public education and so on, we're as segregated today as ever. So, I mean--but in terms of the overt sign, I meant--by which I meant, you know, "no niggers allowed" signs, "no Latinos and dogs allowed on the lawn" type stuff, you know, "whites only", they don't say that; they just raise the rent, and then you have the same effect. But can I just say, you know, I think it's also important to note that one of the things I think happens, where I almost disagree, you know, when the film Malcolm X was made and after I saw what was done to Malcolm by Spike Lee and Warner Bros., you know, I made the argument then that, you know, one of the problems that I have with it, sort of to the contrary of what you were just saying about at least it gives us a chance to talk about it is that it wipes out--I think it more blunts discussion rather than encourages it, because people get a sanitized version of these people, and they walk away thinking they got enough or they think that they know enough. And then it blocks further research, further discussion, further critical analysis, and certainly further organization around the principles these people were advocating. So in that way I think it's almost kind of like we'll give you--we will overfeed you to the point where you will just become stuffed and lazy with it, as opposed to--.
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<p />JAY: Tell me what--King himself went through a transition and, you know, towards his last period of his life became much more radicalized. His language against the Vietnam War became much, much stronger. But in terms of your own arc, now, you come--I know you and I know your parents were both quite progressive. But in terms of your own arc, what did King's words and message--how did that influence you?
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<p />BALL: Well, initially it didn't at all. I mean, initially I went through, I think, the same stages that a lot of young people go through, where they pick up King and they get the sanitized version and, like, oh, he was soft, it didn't speak to what we needed for our manhood or our womanhood. We all said, I'm Malcolm, I want Malcolm, I don't--you know, we put up this sort of false binary. And then one day I happened to--I was encouraged to read Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, his last full-length book, and in that book I literally kept closing it and kept, you know, wondering: had someone slipped Malcolm's manifesto in a book with King on the cover? Because you start to realize, wow, King, you know, this argument of the change, you know, we get the mythology that Malcolm changed and--.
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<p />JAY: Okay, just very quickly, for some of our younger viewers, we're talking about Malcolm X. And if you don't know, you can go to Wikipedia, and there's lots of places you can go. But some of our viewers are younger and they're just kind of learning some of this stuff. Go ahead.
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<p />BALL: So, you know, we get the impression, we get the mythology about Malcolm X, the post-Mecca Malcolm, where he made changes that in effect really didn't--he didn't make in terms of his analysis, particularly of the United States and Western imperialism. And then we get a version of King that he was just soft, when in fact not only were they meeting personally and literally in real life, but they were actually coordinating efforts to split up the movement. And more that--less that Malcolm X was softening to where King was, King was sort of hardening to where Malcolm was; he was reaching conclusions that Malcolm X had reached long before, particularly on issues of Vietnam, imperialism in general, and the specific workings of capitalism and racism in this country. So what we end up getting is, you know, a lot of us go through this--you know, again, we create this false binary, you know, Malcolm versus Martin, which one are you, and then we even use it to test one another, like, you know, when you first meet somebody [inaudible]
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<p />JAY: When one looks at the general, publicized, media-exposed King celebrations, you know, one sees the kind of King you're talking about, the symbol for racial unity, a man of peace, he's compared to Gandhi, and all of this. But in the African-American community itself, do you see more of this real radical King?
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<p />BALL: Certainly not enough, and I worry about it to the extent that I don't. There's not enough of a discussion of the real politics of King. A lot of people do get caught up in the commemoration aspect of it. A lot of people get caught up in--some people even, you know, take advantage of it and want to use King to prop themselves up or to bring more people into whatever flock that they're trying to generate. But I also think, more importantly than that, that we have to remember that at the time of King's assassination he was ostracized by many in his own movement. A lot of the civil rights leadership that today would not publicly acknowledge this had distanced themselves from King at the end of his life. Certainly the state itself had distanced itself from King at the end of his life. Popular media castigated him routinely at the end of his life. So this kind of let's come back now and reimage him as a hero is really disturbing, considering all the vitriol that was thrown at him while he was alive by people in and out of the movement.
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<p />JAY: So which quote or idea of King's do you find most relevant today?
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<p />BALL: Well, I think a lot of his quotes are most relevant. His statements against mass incarceration, where he talked about the burgeoning prison-industrial complex and where he talked about--even specifically concerning what's happening now is his commemoration is being attached to the terrible events in Arizona recently, where he said--you know, he talked about crime and he talked about real crime, so he would say, yes--he said something to the effect that, yes, it's terrible that black people will commit crimes, but those crimes he called--were "derivative crimes", and derivative crimes against--of the real crimes of white America. So he was talking about the violence of capitalism, the violence of an increasingly militarized police state within the country, particularly as it regards black America and those in struggle. He also talked about me. [sic] He also said the bombs that are dropped on Vietnam explode at home. And what he meant by that, obviously, was that the billions that are being spent on war could be used to refurbish and re-energize the society and turn it into the country that it claims it was set up to be at the beginning. Another one that also resonates with me is his criticism of liberals and progressives in white America, where he talked about how they would be willing to work with them when they were being beaten and hosed, but when it came to getting real economic reform and real justice in this country and freedom and equality, they walked off with the aggressors, he said. So--.
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<p />JAY: In terms of actually challenging who owns stuff.
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<p />BALL: That's right, who owns stuff, you know, 'cause he said it's great now that the lunch counter is desegregated, that's wonderful, but the hamburger that used to be $0.25 is now $2.50. So it's sort of what I was saying at the beginning: you don't have to put "no negroes allowed" on the building anymore; you just jack up the rent and they're gone. He also, by the way, just--he was also a Duboisian, and people also forget that. Even within the black community they often forget that he was a supporter of Du Bois and Du Bois's politics. So (A) he supported the armed struggles in Africa and Latin America. He did support those movements in Angola and Mozambique, in South Africa, and etc. He also was very quick to be critical of the black middle class, unlike, you know, many of the so-called black leaders today, like Oprah or Bill Cosby, who are quick to blame everything on the black poor. King was very different. He said--not only in agreement with Du Bois' do we need a talented tenth, but he was also in agreement with Du Bois's own criticism of the talented tenth, when Du Bois in 1948 said we need a guiding one hundredth, because this talented tenth wasn't doing--I didn't mean for you to become doctors and dentists and go off into the suburbs and leave your community; I meant for you to take the money and the resources and the expertise that you have to help your people. And this was also King's challenge to those in our community who were standing on the sidelines letting the poor people do all the work and get all the beatings. But then, as we know looking back, you know, particularly now--King saw it then--it's the middle class that got most of the benefit that came from the civil rights movement.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, there's a sort of theory--I guess it's akin to trickle-down economics--that if a section of the black community joins the elite, there'll be a sort of a trickle-down effect to the rest of the black community. And then the other piece of that is that the election of President Obama is sort of an achievement of King's dreams, some people say. And there's certainly some belief of--at least some belief within the black community itself. What do you make of that?
<p />
<p />BALL: Well, again, I think you can only make that assertion if you accept what I'm describing as a bastardized version of King's image. The real King, the real politics of King, would not have accepted, I think--I can't think of anything, actually, that Dr. King would have accepted or found acceptable in the presidency of Barack Obama. He was not one for just show-change or, you know, sort of what they called, in terms of African liberation, "flag independence". He was not for that. I mean, he was very clear, he said very clearly, he made the analogy, a football analogy, after this time, I mean, he said the civil rights movement was like rushing the ball to the 50-yard line and putting it down and claiming touchdown. So he's very clear this is not a game. This is not--we don't want a bill. He even said very clearly, this--you know, our freedom can't come at the end of a Johnson signature; it can't come in a bill or an act.
<p />
<p />JAY: You mean President Johnson.
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<p />BALL: President Johnson, yes. It comes from our collective work with other people who are concerned along with us to change the society, to have the radical revolution of values that he talked about. So I don't think the real King that existed, the real King that became a threat to national security (as described in the pages of The Washington Post less than 90 days before his assassination), that King cannot be--you know, is inconsistent, incompatible with what we're seeing today. And I think those that would make those attachments, try to make that connection between King and Obama, or--and that line that came out that Rosa sat so King could walk so Obama could run so we could fly is just not the reality of the politics of Dr. King, and he left enough documentation that you don't have to take my word for it.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks for joining us. And thank you for joining us. If you want to hear more of Jared and if you live in the Washington area, you can find him on Pacifica Radio on Friday mornings. And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | The Revolutionary MLK | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D6101 | 2011-01-14 | 4 |
<p>Hunters are not one of the Left’s favorite people (is anyone non-left wing?), and almost any time an avid hunter posts pictures of a catch online, crazed leftists will instantly pounce and go on the attack. Jessica Gray has learned that lesson personally, but she’s using it to her advantage instead of backing down.</p>
<p>Back on September 19, she posted on her Facebook page more than a dozen picture from a recent hunting trip. She and her partner found and killed a massive moose and posted the pictures online.</p>
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<p>The main picture garnered the most hatred.</p>
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<p>When she posted the pictures, she instantly got attacked by the Left (who, by the way, continuously show more concern for the lives of animals than the lives of human beings inside the womb).</p>
<p>“That poor, beautiful animal is now deceased because you want to have it’s horns on your wall…..how horrible. Poor animal did nothing to deserve being murdered. And look how happy you two look kneeling over it’s dead body…..my god”</p>
<p>“you are both disgusting! I hope you are still there and I hope an animal attacks n kills you both! Someone should then mount your heads over their fireplaces.”</p>
<p>“you and your cunt husband will hopefully find the same end this poor animal did! You are both trash!”</p>
<p>Gotta love the left-wing tolerance and acceptance! These hypocrites wouldn’t recognize the irony if it tore them limb from limb and sucked their brains out with a vacuum!</p>
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<p>News outlets got a hold of the controversy as time progressed. She continued to get left-wing hate mail, but rather than capitulate to their hatred, she actually used it as a boost for herself.</p>
<p>Several weeks after the picture was first posted, she commented on the post thanking her haters, but also revealing just how shocking the threats against her have been:</p>
<p>I just wanted to take a second and say THANK YOU! Thank you for the amount of HATE and death threats you have all sent my way. It has created quite the media stir bringing this to a National Platform where I have media, newspaper, huntings blogs, radio stations and women’s rights groups contacting me to be spokesperson and sponsorships from it! Please keep the HATE coming! Two days ago I was a passionate small town hunter and today I have multiple new sponsors and hunts lined up across the country.</p>
<p>To begin, allow me to clear up some misconceptions and outright false accusations some have directed towards me concerning our recent hunt in Alaska.</p>
<p>I was raised with a deep respect, appreciation and love for all animals, and have raised and cared for many in my lifetime, as did my parents and as are my children…</p>
<p>Since returning from our hunt in Alaska and the many responses on social media, my family and I have been ambushed continually with threats, even death threats and called the most disgusting and filthy and evil names.</p>
<p>This has been a clear illustration of just how disconnected from reality and uneducated some people are when it comes to hunting, hunters and the environment. I would challenge any of those who have launched the barrage of hate and criminal threats towards my family, my children and me personally; I challenge them to actually educate themselves on the law, on the environmental impact that controlled lawful hunting provides, and to learn the difference between humans and animals… Accusing someone of murder when they hunt an animal is like accusing jet pilots of global warming… it’s intellectually irresponsible and brings light to the greater issue, mental illness of those who make such ignorant claims… Likely the same who condemn the legal taking of wild animals are supporters of the millions of abortions performed at the baby killing clinics in the name of womens health?</p>
<p>This hypocritically driven hate towards hunting is deep rooted in a more troubling issue, the realistic perspective some have on life as a whole… So go hug a tree, heck, even name it and marry it if you like, but don’t spit your vile and perverse and ignorant threats at law abiding hunters who are responsible and caretakers of the planet and provide clean, lean and unpolluted fresh food for their families…</p>
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<p>In a further statement to <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/moose-hunt-photoshoot-woman-gets-trolled-172203207.html" type="external">Yahoo News</a>, she stated that the response was particularly saddening after the tragic attack in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>“I find it unfortunate that the day after we as a nation suffer the greatest loss of human life in the tragic Las Vegas shooting; that instead of coming together as a nation to preserve and honor the sanctity of human life, I have received hundreds of death threats from the anti-hunting community,” Grays stated.</p>
<p>Indeed, how saddening it is to see so many death threats after the attack. At a time when we should be in a state of mourning and solidarity, some are apparently too busy threatening further harm to honor the lost. It seems that’s becoming par for the course with the Left’s worst these days.</p>
<p>What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.</p> | Moose Hunter Blasts Critics on Facebook Page – “Please Keep The HATE Coming!” | true | http://thefederalistpapers.org/us/moose-hunter-blasts-critics-facebook-page-please-keep-hate-coming | 0 |
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<p>During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump constantly promised he'd run America "like a business." And Trump's budget proposal, announced last week, has become a major indicator of how he plans to do that.&#160;</p>
<p>"This budget is simply a blueprint, what's known in Washington as a skinny budget, which sounds like a line item that Trump might have included in one of his prenups," John Oliver remarked on "Last Week Tonight."</p>
<p>Among other things, Trump's blueprint calls for a $54 billion increase in defense spending, paralleled with sweeping cuts to a wide range of other federal programs.&#160;</p>
<p>"It is sort of fitting that the list of budget cuts scroll by like the end credits for America," Oliver mused after rolling a CNN clip. "Thanks for helping us out, Agriculture Department. Hope you find a gig with the next country that rises from our ashes."</p>
<p>Trump's budget is very unlikely to pass in its current form. However, "it is worth taking just a few minutes to look at it partly because it gives us a clear sense of our president's priorities, but also because it gives us a chance to get to know yet another one of the Trump administration's key characters," Oliver explained.&#160;</p>
<p>Granted, "we've met most of them by now, [chief strategist] Steve Bannon, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs banker who somehow constantly looks like he just woke up on a park bench after losing custody of his children... [counselor to the president] Kellyanne Conway, the brave survivor of a terrorist attack she completely made up, and...[senior adviser] Stephen Miller, the least popular boy at vampire school," Oliver rattled off.&#160;</p>
<p>On the other hand, another member of the Trump team, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, gained notoriety this week through his highly scientific process of interpreting Trump's message.&#160;</p>
<p>"Basically Mulvaney treated Trump's past statements the way Trump treats women; randomly singling out a few of them and then reducing them down to numbers," Oliver explained. "But that cannot have been easy when you think about it, because translating the noises that come out of Trump's face into hard policy prescriptions is almost impossible."&#160;</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
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<p>Alexandra Rosenmann is an AlterNet associate editor. Follow her&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/alexpreditor" type="external">@alexpreditor</a>.</p> | John Oliver Calls Trump's Proposed Budget the 'End Credits for America' | true | http://alternet.org/news-amp-politics/john-oliver-calls-trumps-proposed-budget-end-credits-america | 2017-03-20 | 4 |
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>04-08-15-32-33</p>
<p>(four, eight, fifteen, thirty-two, thirty-three)</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>01-15-16-24-33-52</p>
<p>(one, fifteen, sixteen, twenty-four, thirty-three, fifty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $3.5 million</p>
<p>Lotto XTRA</p>
<p>03</p>
<p>(three)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>4-0</p>
<p>(four, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>0-8</p>
<p>(zero, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-0-7</p>
<p>(six, zero, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>1-3-0</p>
<p>(one, three, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>7-7-8-5</p>
<p>(seven, seven, eight, five)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>9-1-2-3</p>
<p>(nine, one, two, three)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>5-2-8-7-8</p>
<p>(five, two, eight, seven, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>5-6-9-9-7</p>
<p>(five, six, nine, nine, seven)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p>
<p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p>
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Wednesday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>04-08-15-32-33</p>
<p>(four, eight, fifteen, thirty-two, thirty-three)</p>
<p>Lotto</p>
<p>01-15-16-24-33-52</p>
<p>(one, fifteen, sixteen, twenty-four, thirty-three, fifty-two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $3.5 million</p>
<p>Lotto XTRA</p>
<p>03</p>
<p>(three)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $55 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>4-0</p>
<p>(four, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>0-8</p>
<p>(zero, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-0-7</p>
<p>(six, zero, seven)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>1-3-0</p>
<p>(one, three, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>7-7-8-5</p>
<p>(seven, seven, eight, five)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>9-1-2-3</p>
<p>(nine, one, two, three)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>5-2-8-7-8</p>
<p>(five, two, eight, seven, eight)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>5-6-9-9-7</p>
<p>(five, six, nine, nine, seven)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>03-33-37-51-57, Powerball: 21, Power Play: 2</p>
<p>(three, thirty-three, thirty-seven, fifty-one, fifty-seven; Powerball: twenty-one; Power Play: two)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $62 million</p> | FL Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/eb62349e26404f8886ed65e48e5fa2a0 | 2018-01-18 | 2 |
<p>In this segment from the <a href="https://www.fool.com/podcasts/marketfoolery/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6e32c3b4-bbf1-11e7-8241-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Market Foolery Opens a New Window.</a> podcast, host Chris Hill and David Kretzmann of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and SuperNova take a close look at Twitter&#160;(NYSE: TWTR), which posted higher than expected revenue and raised guidance.</p>
<p>Sales were still down, but the pace of the slowdown is slowing. And they're close to GAAP profitability. Was the day's optimism a case of genuine positivity, or a matter of beating low expectations? And what's next?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A full transcript follows the video.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than TwitterWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=2978aec4-acd9-46f3-84cd-ffd58a9afa9f&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6e32c3b4-bbf1-11e7-8241-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now… and Twitter wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=2978aec4-acd9-46f3-84cd-ffd58a9afa9f&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6e32c3b4-bbf1-11e7-8241-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>This video was recorded on Oct. 26, 2017.</p>
<p>Chris Hill: Shares of Twitter are up 15% this morning. The third-quarter revenue came in higher than expected. They raised guidance for the fourth quarter. This has been a long time coming. If you're a Twitter shareholder, you're having a good day, and it's been a long time since you've had a day like this.</p>
<p>David Kretzmann: Yeah. Honestly, I think part of it, going back to our IBM&#160;conversation last week, it really helps when expectations are low. You have a low bar to jump over. I think that's part of what Twitter is dealing with. Their sales were still down 4% this quarter, so they are still shrinking, but the pace of sales declines is slowing. So that's a plus. Last quarter was down 5%. That's improving. They're also really improving their expense management. Their GAAP expenses were down 16%. It's nice when you can cut costs more than your sales are dropping. They're getting closer and closer to GAAP profitability. They're still not quite there, but they think within the next couple of quarters they could hit that mark.</p>
<p>In general, a lot of things moving in the right direction for Twitter, although there's still a lot of room for improvement. But their daily active users are up 14%, so they're just finding ways to increase engagement on that platform, which is obviously what they need right now.</p>
<p>Hill: It absolutely is. When you think about what's driving the revenue, when you think about advertising, I think part of what helps them, part of why I think there's some optimism about the next six months, particularly if they get the profitability next quarter or the one after that, is, one of the things a quarter like this does is it makes people whose job it is to control large advertising budgets, it makes them think twice about skipping Twitter. There was a good stretch of time where Twitter was, if not outright ignored by a lot of ad companies and ad firms and major brands, that sort of thing, this keeps them in the conversation, particularly, as you mentioned, the growth users. When you can add a few million users, that makes it more likely that advertisers are going to come your way.</p>
<p>Kretzmann: Yeah, and ad engagement on the platform almost doubled this quarter. The cost per engagement was down about 50%. But still, in general, moving the right direction. The volume of engagement, people are seeing more ads, which is obviously the direction it needs to go. They are pushing more and more into live video. This past quarter, they streamed 830 events. For the life of me, I don't know where to go on Twitter to find the live video. And I feel like I'm a semi-smart guy. I can use Snapchat, which is supposed to be the most complicated social-media app out there. But Twitter, for the life of me, I can't figure out where they host the live video on their platform. And even people who are die-hard Twitter users, like Jay-Mo here at Fool HQ, even he has a hard time finding it. It's like, guys, discovering live video shouldn't be this hard on your platform when that's supposed to be a key tenet of your strategy.</p>
<p>Hill: Absolutely. I can't remember if it was on Market Foolery or Motley Fool Money, Jason has mentioned that recently, and it's absolutely true. And I am, in fact, reminded of the lack of visibility on their video strategy every time I open up Twitter on the desktop, because when I go to Twitter, it automatically opens up a video screen on the right-hand side of the page. And so, whatever is the thing you mentioned -- how many?</p>
<p>Kretzmann: 830.</p>
<p>Hill: 830, OK. So when I open up Twitter on desktop, whatever is the one live video that they're promoting at that moment -- sometimes it's financial news; sometimes it's a sporting event if it's the evening -- if it's got my attention, I'll start watching it. But every single time, whether I watch it or not, I'm reminded of the fact that, there's still no central section for video where I can click through and say, I know you're streaming other stuff live; where can I find it?</p>
<p>Kretzmann: It seems like a no-brainer. They are testing other ways to increase user engagement, test different things around. They're testing longer character limits. It took them 11 years to figure out that people actually max out their 140 characters in Twitter when they have all sorts of numbers and symbols trying to squeeze as much as possible into 140 characters. So they're at least starting to test rolling out longer character limits, going up to 280 characters, essentially doubling the number of characters you can put in your quality Twitter posts.</p>
<p>In general, this is the most optimistic I've been about Twitter in a while. For a long time, this has been an easy company to hate on, but they are controlling their stock-based compensation, their other expenses, bringing their expenses in general into a better position, better contained. They have $2.5 billion of net cash on the balance sheet. They are more and more free cash flow positive, and that's not just due to stock-based compensation. And they are getting closer to GAAP profitability. So in general, I think the company is in a stronger position today, even though sales are still dropping. But I think there are better days ahead.</p>
<p>Hill: I'm glad you mentioned the compensation, because that was one pretty significant reason why, a year ago, two years ago, plenty of smart people looked at Twitter and thought that company is going to be bought, because they can't maintain the path they're on right now. And a big part of that was the stock-based compensation.</p>
<p>Kretzmann: And it's still high. Last year, it was about 25% of total sales that was made up of stock-based compensation, which is very high. Alphabet, for comparison, was 7%-8%. Facebook&#160;was 15%. I'm not sure where Facebook is at this year. But now, Twitter has gotten that number down to 17%. So it's still on the high end of the spectrum. The diluted share count is still almost growing 1% each quarter, but that number has, bit by bit, decelerated. So, moving in the right direction but still some work to do.</p>
<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFWizard/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6e32c3b4-bbf1-11e7-8241-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Chris Hill Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFPencils/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6e32c3b4-bbf1-11e7-8241-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">David Kretzmann Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Alphabet (C shares), Facebook, and Twitter. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Facebook, and Twitter. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=6e32c3b4-bbf1-11e7-8241-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Is Twitter Finally Singing the Song Wall Street Wants to Hear? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/28/is-twitter-finally-singing-song-wall-street-wants-to-hear.html | 2017-10-28 | 0 |
<p />
<p>This cartoon requires Macromedia’s Flash Player. If you don’t see the cartoon above, <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="external">download the player here</a>.</p>
<p>Mark Fiore is an editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a <a href="http://www.markfiore.com" type="external">web site</a> featuring his work.</p>
<p /> | Rummy’s Greatest Hits! | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/12/rummys-greatest-hits/ | 2004-12-15 | 4 |
<p>Apparently business owners don’t have a one-track mind when it comes to location, location and location.</p>
<p>According to some economists, what a state demands a business pay in taxes ranks far down its priority list of attractive qualities. Business owners, they say, look at the whole package when choosing where to locate, taking into account quality of life, school systems, public safety and other services that said taxes end up paying for. If low taxes were the only thing that mattered, economists contend, we’d see mass migration to southeastern states, where it’s dirt cheap to start up a business.“One could argue that the more traditionally high-tax communities like Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, do a much better job at attracting and retaining small firms” than those states with lower taxes, explained Rutgers University finance and social policy Professor Henry A. Coleman, who has also served as senior economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at the U.S. General Accounting Office. “What are you getting for the taxes that you pay? I think businesses are a lot more sophisticated than some of the simple thinking associated” with taxes.There are other less-obvious, tax-related measures that come into play, as well.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For example, does a state allow a business to file as a business, or pay taxes through the personal-income tax? And does it offer small businesses the option of carrying over losses from one operating period to the next?“We need to be mindful and flexible in looking at the total picture of all of those factors that influence those locational decisions. Are there any businesses that leave because those taxes are high? Sure,” but “I just can’t believe that taxes are the pivotal issue because otherwise, they would all be leaving for Louisiana and Mississippi,” said Coleman, who has also served as executive director of the New Jersey State and Local Expenditure and Revenue Policy Commission.“If you look around the country, many of the states, say in the southeast ... have legendary low tax rates but not all big companies and certainly not all small companies move to those states,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxsmallbusinesscenter.com/strategy/2009/10/23/makes-state-sexy-eager-entrepreneurs/?storytab=story-comments" type="external">Are you a small business owner who is thinking of relocating? &#160;If so, sound off and let us know why? Or, if not, why not? &#160;Chime in here.</a></p>
<p>But Cap Willey, director of the National Small Business Administration, says that while taxes may not be No. 1 concern on entrepreneurs’ priority lists, they certainly rank among the top five.“They’re high on most lists around here,” he said. “Getting a proper tax structure that incentivizes business to work here would go a long way. If I can get my marginal-tax rate down to 6%, even though it’s not a huge difference between my two neighboring states, I can do a lot better job selling the state.”</p>
<p>Some U.S. residents may indeed have proof that they are at an economic disadvantage when neighbor states offer more attractive tax systems, such as no income or capital-gains taxes, or lower sales-tax rates. Take Nevada and California, for example. While both states are suffering from a housing glut, “it’s striking how much better [off more entrepreneurial-friendly] Nevada is than California,” said Ray Keating, the SBE Council’s chief economist. It’s no coincidence that Nevada has been a high-growth state overtime in terms of opportunity and overall economy, he said.Rhode Island is another state that may be suffering from better-tax neighbor malaise. The tiny Ocean State – which ranked 44th on the SBE Council’s list – is bordered by Massachusetts and Connecticut. Its marginal-tax rate can reach 9%, compared to Massachusetts’ 5.3%.Willey, who is also managing director of the CPA firm CBIZ Tofias in Rhode Island, said that in his state businesses don’t get much in return for paying higher income, property and sales taxes -- and dealing with more regulatory burdens than other states impose. So, he said, many people commute to Boston or other cities in neighboring states to set up shop.“We’re not getting the performance in our education system and we’re not necessarily getting the performance in our government - and that’s frustrating,” Willey said.Throw in the Internet and the whole-new-world of opportunity e-commerce offers, and it adds up to more reasons states should work on being more attractive to small businesses and new capital.“It’s no longer the state next door – you have to worry about all the states,” Keating said. “You can’t just be better than your neighbor, you have to be better than the rest of the world.”</p> | What Makes a State Sexy to Eager Entrepreneurs? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2009/10/23/makes-state-sexy-eager-entrepreneurs.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling more than 117,000 vehicles from the 2013 and 2014 model years for a defect that could cause them to stall.</p>
<p>The recall involves the Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban, Traverse, Express and Silverado; the Cadillac CTS, Escalade and Escalade ESV; the GMC Yukon, Yukon XL, Acadia, Savana and Sierra; and the Buick Enclave.</p>
<p>GM says metal slivers in the chassis control module could cause an electrical short. If that happens, the vehicle could stall.</p>
<p>GM knows of no accidents or injuries related to the defect. It believes only 1 percent of the vehicles being recalled are affected.</p>
<p>The recall includes 97,540 vehicles sold in the U.S. and 20,201 exported elsewhere. Around 4,500 vehicles haven't yet been sold.</p>
<p>GM will notify owners. Dealers will replace the module for free.</p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling more than 117,000 vehicles from the 2013 and 2014 model years for a defect that could cause them to stall.</p>
<p>The recall involves the Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban, Traverse, Express and Silverado; the Cadillac CTS, Escalade and Escalade ESV; the GMC Yukon, Yukon XL, Acadia, Savana and Sierra; and the Buick Enclave.</p>
<p>GM says metal slivers in the chassis control module could cause an electrical short. If that happens, the vehicle could stall.</p>
<p>GM knows of no accidents or injuries related to the defect. It believes only 1 percent of the vehicles being recalled are affected.</p>
<p>The recall includes 97,540 vehicles sold in the U.S. and 20,201 exported elsewhere. Around 4,500 vehicles haven't yet been sold.</p>
<p>GM will notify owners. Dealers will replace the module for free.</p> | GM recalling 117,000 vehicles for stalling risk | false | https://apnews.com/amp/0c5adfd60eef4c8f9e9b53530513309b | 2014-10-02 | 2 |
<p>Developers are creating apps that can tap into the sensors in your smart device to measure different aspects of your environment, such as your number of footsteps or your heartbeat. And now there’s an app to measure your surrounding seismic activity.</p>
<p>Seismologist Richard Allen, who worked to develop MyShake, says the app uses the sensing abilities already built into smartphones.&#160;</p>
<p>“We developed a classifier analysis that can recognize an earthquake type of shaking as opposed to all those other everyday types of shaking,” Allen says. “When you download the app, the app runs in the background and it watches for this earthquake type of shaking. And then when it sees it, it sends that information to our server.”</p>
<p>Some 170,000 people have downloaded the app to their phones since it came out in February, and the app has already recorded more than 120 earthquakes around the world. At first Allen expected the app would only be able to record earthquakes greater than about magnitude five, but in fact the app has been successful in recording earthquakes as small as magnitude 2.5.&#160;</p>
<p>“We're very encouraged,” Allen says. “It seems to be working very well.”</p>
<p>Allen says the app serves a different purpose than the highly sensitive seismic monitors already in existence.&#160;</p>
<p>“These kinds of networks that we're developing now using smartphones, they are never going to replace what I think of as the traditional seismic network. The observation-quality instrumentation ... can record earthquakes on the other side of the globe and so that's really important for the research that we're doing. Also for understanding, you know, the damage that happens in big earthquakes,” Allen says. “But our hope is that this new network —&#160;this MyShake network with potentially, you know, in the future maybe millions of sensors — we can really understand much more about the earthquake process; how the earthquake ruptures on the full plane, the impact it has on the buildings, how our buildings vibrate in the earthquake just by the virtue of the fact that we have so many more sensors now.”</p>
<p>In the future Allen even hopes the app might help warn people of oncoming earthquakes. &#160;</p>
<p>“Our hope is that we can run this fast enough that we can also detect the earthquakes quickly enough and push warnings to people before they feel the shaking in the future,” Allen says. “Of course, we're working on doing that using traditional seismic networks as well, so we think that MyShake can help make those systems perhaps faster and more accurate in places where there are high quality sensors. However, the real value when it comes to early warning is the many other parts of the world that are earthquake prone but have no seismic network whatsoever, but, as it turns out, often have millions of smartphones that we could use.”</p>
<p>One place where the app might be helpful in getting out an early warning signal? Earthquake-prone Nepal.&#160;</p>
<p>“We had two significant damaging earthquakes in Nepal last year,” Allen says. “There’s a very small number of traditional sensors [in Nepal], but there are 600,000 smartphones in Katmandu. So if we can harness those phones to rapidly detect the earthquake, we could potentially provide a warning in places like Nepal.”</p>
<p>This article is based on an&#160; <a href="http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/theres-an-app-for-that-detecting-earthquakes/" type="external">interview</a>&#160;that aired on&#160; <a href="http://www.sciencefriday.com/" type="external">PRI's Science Friday</a>.</p> | How your phone could help scientists detect and measure an earthquake | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-06-12/how-your-phone-could-help-scientists-detect-and-measure-earthquake | 2016-06-12 | 3 |
<p>Dec. 16 (UPI) — Midfielder Darlington Nagbe was welcomed in a private jet after his trade to Atlanta United.</p>
<p>Nagbe, 27, was officially traded from the Portland Timbers to Atlanta on Wednesday. Atlanta sent a potential total of $1.65 million to Portland. The Timbers also traded defender Gbenga Arroyo to Atlanta.</p>
<p>On Friday, Atlanta sent team brass to Cleveland, Ohio to pick up the United States Men’s National Team member. Club President Darren Eales was part of the front office on the luxurious journey.</p>
<p>“It’s my first time in Atlanta and everyone’s showing love,” <a href="https://www.atlutd.com/post/2017/12/15/darlington-nagbe-reacts-his-first-meeting-atlanta-united-fanbase" type="external">Nagbe told reporters.</a> “I got to meet a lot of the staff and a lot of fans. Everyone’s so passionate here. I think as a player, that’s what you want: fans that are dedicated to the team. So far it’s been great.”</p>
<p>He walked off of the plane wearing an Atlanta United scarf over his suit. He was driven away in a motorcade of Mercedes SUVs.</p>
<p>Nagbe also got a tour of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and signed autographs at the team pro shop, before meeting for the first time with local media.</p>
<p>The midfielder won the MLS Cup title in 2015 with Portland. He has 27 goals and 30 assists in his league career.</p>
<p>“Darlington is one of the most dynamic players in the league, and what stands out to me about him is that he compliments our attacking options so well,” Atlanta United technical director <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carlos_Bocanegra/" type="external">Carlos Bocanegra</a> told <a href="https://www.atlutd.com/post/2017/12/13/bocanegra-addition-darlington-nagbe" type="external">the team website</a>. “He has the ability to dribble out of trouble, he has a very unique quality in his ability to skip past a few defenders and drag defenders out of position, which leaves his teammates in great positions one-on-one or with mismatches down the field.”</p>
<p>Atlanta United also acquired <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jose_Hernandez/" type="external">Jose Hernandez</a> this week from Caracas FC of the Venezuelan Primera Division.</p> | Darlington Nagbe: Midfielder arrives via private jet to new club Atlanta United | false | https://newsline.com/darlington-nagbe-midfielder-arrives-via-private-jet-to-new-club-atlanta-united/ | 2017-12-16 | 1 |
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian officials are in contact with the Turkish leadership over Ankara’s military operation against Kurdish YPG fighters in northern Syria’s Afrin region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.</p>
<p>Peskov, speaking on a conference call with reporters, declined to comment when asked if Moscow had known in advance about the operation. He said Russia continued to believe in the fundamental importance of Syria’s territorial integrity.</p>
<p>Editing by Toby Chopra</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops fired warning shots toward Palestinian youths gathered at the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday, wounding 13 people, health officials said.</p> A Palestinian hurls stones at Israeli troops during clashes at the Gaza-Israel border at a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland, in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
<p>Tension remained high in the area a day after deadly violence broke out in one of the biggest Palestinian demonstrations there in years.</p>
<p>An Israeli military spokesman said he was checking the details of Saturday’s unrest.</p>
<p>On Friday at least 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces confronting protesters, some of whom the military said had opened fire, rolled burning tires and hurled rocks and fire bombs toward troops across the border.</p> A Palestinian is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops at the Gaza-Israel border at a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland, in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
<p>Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared Saturday a national day of mourning and a general strike was called across the occupied West Bank. Thousands in Gaza marched through the streets at funerals for those killed.</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered on Friday along the fenced 65-km (40-mile) frontier, where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest pressing for a right of return for refugees and their descendents to what is now Israel. The Israeli military estimate was 30,000.</p>
<p>Families brought their children to the encampments just a few hundred meters (yards) from the Israeli security barrier with the Islamist Hamas-run enclave. But hundreds of Palestinian youths ignored calls from the organizers and the Israeli military to stay away from the frontier and violence broke out.</p> PALESTINIANS MARKING “CATASTROPHE”
<p>The protest, organized by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, is scheduled to culminate on May 15, the day Palestinians commemorate what they call the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe” when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out of their homes in 1948, when the state of Israel was created.</p>
<p>Israel has long ruled out any right of return, fearing an influx of Arabs that would wipe out its Jewish majority. It argues that refugees should resettle in a future state the Palestinians seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. Peace talks to that end have been frozen since 2014.</p> Slideshow (9 Images)
<p>Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but still maintains tight control of its land and sea borders.</p>
<p>Egypt also keeps its border with Gaza largely closed.</p>
<p>Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said: “The message of the Palestinian people is clear. The Palestinian land will always belong to its legitimate owners and the occupation will be removed.”</p>
<p>Israeli military spokesman Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis said Hamas was using the protests as a guise to launch attacks against Israel and ignite the area. He said violence would likely continue along the border until May 15.</p>
<p>“We won’t let this turn into a ping-pong zone where they perpetrate a terrorist act and we respond with pinpoint action. If this continues we will not have no choice but to respond inside the Gaza Strip,” Manelis told reporters in a phone briefing.</p>
<p>The Gaza Health Ministry had said on Friday 16 people were killed but revised the death toll to 15 on Saturday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Angus MacSwan</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai visited her birthplace in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on Saturday, bursting into tears as she entered her childhood home for the first time since a Taliban gunman shot her in 2012.</p> Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai pauses during an interview with Reuters at a local hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 30, 2018. REUTERS/Saiyna Bashir
<p>The 20-year-old told a family friend she planned to return home after completing her education at Oxford, where she is reading for a degree in politics, philosophy and economics.</p>
<p>Roads were blocked off in the town of Mingora as Yousafzai, known universally by her first name, flew in by military helicopter with her parents and brother.</p>
<p>Security was tight around her former home, now rented by a family friend, Farid-ul-Haq Haqqani, who has kept the young woman’s room intact with her books, school trophies and luggage.</p>
<p>“They were weeping. They were kneeling on the ground. They were touching the mud with their eyes,” Haqqani said of Malala and her family. He agreed to be interviewed inside the family home and pointed out a shelf in her room with books including Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” and “Romeo and Juliet” as well as a copy of the television series “Ugly Betty”.</p>
<p>“I asked her when are you permanently coming back and she said ‘God willing, when my education is completed, I will God willing come back to Pakistan.’”</p>
<p>He added that Malala chatted in her room with four friends from her school days in Swat, while her parents greeted neighbors who dropped by - since the security detail would not allow her to go to other houses or even up on the roof of her home.</p>
<p>Malala has been visiting Pakistan since Thursday, her first trip home since she was shot and airlifted abroad for treatment. The government and military have been providing security.</p> Books used by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai are seen at shelf inside her room where her belongings are stored in her hometown of Mingora in Swat Valley, Pakistan March 31, 2018. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood
<p>It had been uncertain whether she would be able to visit Swat, a scenic mountain region parts of which spent nearly two years under the control of Pakistani Taliban militants and their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, due to continued concerns for her safety.</p>
<p>“I miss everything about Pakistan ... from the rivers, the mountains, to even the dirty streets and the garbage around our house, and my friends and how we used to have gossip ...to how we used to fight with our neighbors,” Malala told Reuters in an interview on Friday.</p>
<p>“I had never been so excited for anything. I’ve never been so happy before,” she said of returning to Pakistan.</p> “WEAPON OF EDUCATION”
<p>Two security officials told Reuters the trip to Swat would likely be just for one day.</p>
<p>Another family friend, Jawad Iqbal Yousafzai, who is from the same Pashtun clan as Malala, said the family also visited a local army cadet college.</p>
<p>The Pakistani army wrested control of Swat back from the Taliban in 2009 and the area remains mostly peaceful, but the militants still occasionally launch attacks, including one on the military a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>The Taliban claimed responsibility in 2012 for the attack on Yousafzai for her outspoken advocacy for girls’ education, which was forbidden under the militants’ rule over Swat.</p>
<p>She wrote an anonymous blog for the BBC Urdu service as a schoolgirl during the Taliban rule and later became outspoken in advocating more educational opportunities for girls.</p>
<p>In 2014, Malala became the youngest Nobel laureate, honored for her work with the Malala Foundation, a charity she set up to support education advocacy groups with a focus on Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Syria and Kenya.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>This month, a new girls’ school built with her Nobel prize money opened in the village of Shangla in Swat Valley.</p>
<p>“The people of Swat and the whole of Pakistan are with Malala,” Jawad Iqbal Yousafzai said.</p>
<p>“God willing, we will counter the terrorism and extremism in our region with the weapon of education, with the weapon of a pen, with the weapons of teachers and with the weapons of books.”</p>
<p>Haqqani said Malala and her brother requested to be sent dried plums from a tree in the garden once they were harvested.</p>
<p>The family visit lasted about 90 minutes, he said.</p> Malala makes an emotional return home to Pakistan
<p>“They were leaving the house slowly. They were dragging their feet. They were coming back inside again and again,” he said.</p>
<p>Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Kim Coghill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday that a French pledge to help stabilize a region of northern Syria controlled by Kurdish-dominated forces amounted to support for terrorism and could make France a “target of Turkey”.</p> Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting in Ankara, Turkey March 30, 2018. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS
<p>French backing for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia, has angered Ankara at a time when it is fighting the YPG in northern Syria and considers it a terrorist organization.</p>
<p>President Tayyip Erdogan said France had taken a “completely wrong approach” on Syria, adding that he exchanged heated words with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, last week.</p>
<p>The split with France is the latest rift between Turkey under Erdogan and its NATO allies in the West.</p>
<p>Turkey has long complained about U.S. support for the SDF, among a number of irritants to ties with the leading NATO power. Last year it compared the German and Dutch authorities to Nazis for restricting pro-Erdogan demonstrations during a campaign for a referendum to give him greater powers.</p>
<p>The White House said President Donald Trump, who added fresh uncertainty on Thursday when he said that the United States would be “coming out of Syria” very soon, spoke to Erdogan on Friday “to discuss regional developments and the strategic partnership between the United States and Turkey”.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-erdogan/turkey-started-preparations-for-further-operations-in-northern-syria-erdogan-idUSKBN1H60S0" type="external">Turkey started preparations for further operations in northern Syria: Erdogan</a>
<a href="/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-france-er/turkeys-erdogan-says-france-completely-wrong-on-syria-idUSKBN1H60U0" type="external">Turkey's Erdogan says France 'completely wrong' on Syria</a>
<p>“The two leaders expressed support for continued efforts to increase cooperation between their two countries, to advance shared interests as NATO allies, and to work through issues that affect the bilateral relationship,” a White House statement said.</p>
<p>Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the French stance was setting Paris on a collision course with Ankara.</p>
<p>“Those who enter into cooperation and solidarity with terror groups against Turkey ... will, like the terrorists, become a target of Turkey,” Bozdag, who is also the Turkish government spokesman, wrote on Twitter. “We hope France does not take such an irrational step.”</p>
<p>Macron met an SDF delegation on Thursday and gave assurances of French support to stabilize northern Syria. A presidential source later said France could increase its military contribution to the U.S.-led coalition which - alongside the SDF - is fighting Islamic State in Syria.</p>
<p>The United States has 2,000 troops in SDF-held territory, and France also has some troops there as part of the coalition.</p>
<p>Ankara considers the YPG fighters in the SDF to be an extension of Kurdish militants who have waged a decades-old insurgency in southeast Turkey.</p>
<p>Turkish forces drove the YPG from the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin nearly two weeks ago and Erdogan says Ankara is preparing to extend operations along hundreds of miles of border, including areas where the American forces are deployed.</p>
<p>The Afrin operation has already drawn international criticism, notably from Macron. Ankara, meanwhile, has said it expects its allies to move their troops out of the way of a Turkish advance.</p>
<p>“We have no intention to harm soldiers of allied nations, but we cannot allow terrorists to roam freely (in northern Syria),” Erdogan said.</p>
<p>One U.S. service member and one other member of the U.S.-led coalition were killed by a bomb in Syria overnight, the first to die in an attack this year.</p> TRUMP SURPRISE
<p>Trump’s remark on Thursday that the United States would be “coming out of Syria” appeared to take his own administration by surprise.</p>
<p>U.S. officials have said in recent months that Washington planned to keep an open-ended presence in northern Syria, to support stability in the SDF-controlled region, prevent any Islamic State resurgence and counter Iranian influence.</p>
<p>SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel said the force had not been informed of any U.S. withdrawal plan.</p>
<p>“Our work and coordination (with the coalition) is continuing,” Gabriel told Reuters in a written message.</p>
<p>Asked whether U.S. forces had been informed of a decision to withdraw or were preparing to do so, a spokesman for the coalition said he would not comment on future operations.</p> FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, March 6, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
<p>A PYD member in Paris said Macron had promised at Thursday’s meeting with the SDF to send more troops to northern Syria, provide humanitarian assistance and push a diplomatic solution.</p>
<p>The French presidency did not confirm that Macron had pledged more troops, but the presidential source said France could bolster its military intervention in Syria “within the existing framework” of the U.S.-led coalition.</p>
<p>The presidency also said Macron was offering to mediate between Turkey and the SDF - a suggestion Erdogan dismissed.</p>
<p>“Do not engage in things beyond you, we do not need a mediator,” he said, responding to the French offer in remarks to members of his ruling AK Party in Ankara. “Who are you to speak of mediation between Turkey and a terrorist organization?”</p>
<p>Accusing Paris of appeasing terrorism, he said Macron would be held accountable for his policy by his own people.</p>
<p>“We hope France doesn’t come to us for help when the terrorists running from Syria and Iraq fill their country after being encouraged by their policy,” he said.</p> Trump wants early exit out of Syria: senior officials
<p>Erdogan spoke last week with Macron about the French president’s criticism of Turkey’s Afrin campaign.</p>
<p>“He was saying weird things and so, even if it was a bit high-octane, I had to tell him some things,” Erdogan said. “It is not anyone’s place to portray our armed forces as something we do not find acceptable.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by John Irish and Marine Pennetier in Paris, Tom Perry in Beirut, Maher Chmaytelli in Baghdad and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Peter Graff and Susan Thomas</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow has told Britain it must cut “just over 50” more of its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia in a worsening standoff over the poisoning of a Russian former spy and his daughter in England, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.</p> FILE PHOTO: British Ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow leaves the Russian foreign ministry building in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
<p>Separately, Moscow also demanded an official explanation for the search of a Russian passenger plane in London on Thursday and said it could reserve the right to take similar action against British airlines in Russia.</p>
<p>More than 100 Russian diplomats have been expelled by various countries, including 23 from Britain itself, to punish the Kremlin over the March 4 attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the historic English city of Salisbury.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-britain-russia-aeroflot-minister/uk-minister-says-routine-for-plane-to-be-searched-after-russia-demands-explanation-idUSKBN1H70D4" type="external">UK minister says routine for plane to be searched after Russia demands explanation</a>
<p>London says Moscow was responsible for poisoning the Skripals in the first known use of a military-grade nerve agent on European soil since World War Two. Russia flatly denies that and has cast the allegations as part of an elaborate Western plot to sabotage East-West relations and isolate Moscow.</p>
<p>Russia had already retaliated in kind by ejecting 23 British diplomats. On Friday, the Foreign Ministry summoned British Ambassador Laurie Bristow and told him London had one month to further cut its diplomatic contingent in Russia to the same size as the Russian mission in Britain. It also expelled 59 diplomats from 23 other countries for backing Britain.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Britain’s foreign ministry called the Russian move regrettable, and said it was considering the implications of the measures. It did not say how many diplomatic staff in Russia would be affected, while the British Embassy in Moscow says it does not make staff numbers public.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Reuters the demand meant Britain would have to cut “a little over 50” more of its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia on top of the 23 diplomats who have already gone home.</p>
<p>“We asked for parity. The Brits have 50 diplomats more than the Russians,” Zakharova said on Saturday.</p>
<p>When asked if that meant London would now have to cut exactly 50 diplomatic and technical staff, she said: “A little over 50.”</p>
<p>Russia’s Ministry of Transport meanwhile demanded Britain explain why the Aeroflot ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AFLT.MM" type="external">AFLT.MM</a>) passenger plane was searched at Heathrow airport on Friday, in what the Russian Embassy in London called a “blatant provocation”.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>Britain said the search was a normal security measure.</p>
<p>“It is routine for (Britain’s border agency) to search aircraft to protect the UK from organized crime and from those who attempt to bring harmful substances like drugs or firearms into the country,” Security Minister Ben Wallace said in a written statement.</p>
<p>“Once these checks were carried out, the plane was allowed to carry on with its onward journey.”</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AFLT.MM" type="external">Aeroflot-Rossiyskiye Avialinii PAO</a> 155.6 AFLT.MM Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange +1.40 (+0.91%) AFLT.MM VISITS?
<p>Britain’s foreign office also said on Saturday it was considering allowing visits under consular access terms to Yulia Skripal, who is recovering in hospital against all expectations and no longer in critical condition.</p>
<p>Russia’s embassy said that it had contacted Viktoria Skripal, Yulia’s cousin. “Upon receiving confirmation that Yulia Skripal’s condition is getting better and she is able to communicate, she said she would like to go to London and to visit her cousin,” the embassy said.</p> Russia retaliates, expelling 60 U.S. diplomats
<p>The BBC, citing sources, reported on Friday that Yulia was “conscious and talking,” a factor which may influence the investigation of how she and her father were poisoned.</p>
<p>Britain must now decide how it wants to make the cuts to its Russian diplomatic team and may be forced to lay off some Russian support staff as well as sending home fully-fledged diplomats to satisfy Moscow’s demand.</p>
<p>Russia ordered the closure of another British consulate, in St Petersburg, earlier this month in its first retaliatory step.</p>
<p>The poisoning on UK territory has united much of the West in taking action against what it regards as the hostile policies of President Vladimir Putin. This includes the United States under President Donald Trump, who Putin had hoped would improve ties.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary in Edinburgh; Editing by Catherine Evans</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Kremlin says in touch with Ankara over north Syria operation Israeli troops wound 13 on Gaza border, day after deadly protest Nobel winner Malala visits hometown in Pakistan for first time since shooting Turkey says France could become 'target' for backing Syria Kurds UK-Russia standoff deepens as Moscow cuts UK diplomats | false | https://reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-russia/kremlin-says-in-touch-with-ankara-over-north-syria-operation-idUSKBN1FB13V | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Vermont lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Plus</p>
<p>07-21-23-33-39, Megaball: 3</p>
<p>(seven, twenty-one, twenty-three, thirty-three, thirty-nine; Megaball: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.55 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>2-9-6</p>
<p>(two, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-1-0</p>
<p>(six, one, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>8-5-5-3</p>
<p>(eight, five, five, three)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>9-4-3-2</p>
<p>(nine, four, three, two)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p>
<p>CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ These Vermont lotteries were drawn Saturday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $40 million</p>
<p>Megabucks Plus</p>
<p>07-21-23-33-39, Megaball: 3</p>
<p>(seven, twenty-one, twenty-three, thirty-three, thirty-nine; Megaball: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $4.55 million</p>
<p>Pick 3 Day</p>
<p>2-9-6</p>
<p>(two, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>6-1-0</p>
<p>(six, one, zero)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Day</p>
<p>8-5-5-3</p>
<p>(eight, five, five, three)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>9-4-3-2</p>
<p>(nine, four, three, two)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>12-29-30-33-61, Powerball: 26, Power Play: 3</p>
<p>(twelve, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-three, sixty-one; Powerball: twenty-six; Power Play: three)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $570 million</p> | VT Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/567c5eb9d702495ab15a769f01f60f9e | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>By Beth Pinsker</p>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) – At a retirement community near Chicago, Jay Schachner and his friends are nervously awaiting the fate of their medical expenses amid U.S. tax overhaul.</p>
<p>“Everyone is running scared, frankly,” said Schachner, an 86-year-old retired property law attorney who lives in a planned senior-living community in Chicago.</p>
<p>The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that would eliminate the deduction for medical expenses. The Senate version leaves it alone.</p>
<p>For most Americans, the medical deduction is currently available for expenses above 10 percent of adjusted gross income.</p>
<p>That is a pretty high bar for most people to clear, and only about 9 million claim it. Those who do are typically old, sick and not wealthy. About 75 percent of Americans who take the medical deduction are over 50, and 70 percent make $75,000 a year or less, according to AARP.</p>
<p>“It’s a very middle-income deduction,” said Cristina Martin Firvida, director of health security in AARP’s government affairs office.</p>
<p>For Schachner, the deduction for medical expenses provides a useful annual financial boost of several thousand dollars. The community where he lives is part of the Kendal system, a nonprofit continuing care retirement community. Residents pay an entry fee that averages around $250,000, along with monthly fees of about $3,000. A portion of those fees, from 20 percent to 30 percent, are counted as medical expenses that can be deducted.</p>
<p>Since the Schachners are spending down their nest egg, they are offsetting some of the tax bite from selling assets by taking a deduction for medical expenses. However, if the rules change and their calculations are off, they will have to scramble to make up the difference.</p>
<p>IMPACT ON PLANNED COMMUNITIES</p>
<p>Richard Garrison, a 71-year-old retired chemical engineer who lives in a Kendal property in Maryland, says that eliminating the medical deduction will be a killer for planned communities like his, where people sign up for a living arrangement that will carry them from independent apartments to nursing care.</p>
<p>Already more than 60 percent of Social Security beneficiaries receive at least half their income from Social Security, according to the Social Security Administration. Those that completely run out of options end up on Medicaid, the social safety net that ends up paying for a lot of end-of-life care.</p>
<p>Just 1 percent of Kendal’s 13 affiliates transition to Medicaid now, said Marvell Adams, executive director of the Collington Community, a Kendal affiliate.</p>
<p>Another snowball factor of eliminating the medical deduction starts with seniors who suddenly have to cover several thousand dollars more in medical expenses a year. They will have to draw down more of their savings to cover those costs, putting them in danger of running out of money faster.</p>
<p>And the more they withdraw from their saving in a year, the more their Social Security benefits become taxable.</p>
<p>“It’s a double hit to a lot of these folks,” said John Dundon, a tax accountant and enrolled agent from Denver.</p>
<p>Dire medical conditions also take a tax toll on pre-retirees. Jennifer MacMillan, a tax accountant in Santa Barbara, California, has a client who is in her 60s and still working, making $120,000 a year. Her husband has Alzheimer’s, and the annual cost for him to live in a facility is $60,000.</p>
<p>With big medical expenses since 2015, she ended up with very little tax and got a refund, MacMillan said.</p>
<p>“Without that deduction, for anyone with a family member with a serious illness, it will be devastating,” she added.</p> | Your Money: Uncertain future for those counting on medical deductions | false | https://newsline.com/your-money-uncertain-future-for-those-counting-on-medical-deductions/ | 2017-11-22 | 1 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials are recommending that Washington's subway system immediately repair components that are designed to protect an electrified rail from water and other contaminants.</p>
<p>The National Transportation Safety Board issued the recommendation on Monday. The NTSB uncovered the problem while investigating a malfunction that caused a Metro train to fill with smoke. One passenger died and more than 80 others were sickened during the January malfunction.</p>
<p>The NTSB says it has found electrical connections intended to protect the third rail elsewhere in the Metro system are either missing or were built and installed incorrectly. Water or dirt on the third rail can lead to smoke and fire. Metro says it will start installing hundreds of the components immediately.</p>
<p>The NTSB has not determined the cause of the January malfunction.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials are recommending that Washington's subway system immediately repair components that are designed to protect an electrified rail from water and other contaminants.</p>
<p>The National Transportation Safety Board issued the recommendation on Monday. The NTSB uncovered the problem while investigating a malfunction that caused a Metro train to fill with smoke. One passenger died and more than 80 others were sickened during the January malfunction.</p>
<p>The NTSB says it has found electrical connections intended to protect the third rail elsewhere in the Metro system are either missing or were built and installed incorrectly. Water or dirt on the third rail can lead to smoke and fire. Metro says it will start installing hundreds of the components immediately.</p>
<p>The NTSB has not determined the cause of the January malfunction.</p> | Immediate fix recommended for DC subway components | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f7b5eaf4c34d4e938d7a50f39e51bc77 | 2015-06-08 | 2 |
<p>Remember: Republicans say we don’t have a gun violence problem in schools.</p>
<p>He totally got, what’s the word? Oh, yes – ‘cucked.’</p>
<p>This is what happens when you arm teachers.</p>
<p>Well, it’s true.</p>
<p>What other official business does he intend to conduct via Twitter?</p>
<p>Trump’s America.</p>
<p>Stormy Daniels’ upcoming 60 Minutes interview is scaring the hell out of Trump.</p>
<p>What is WRONG with him?</p>
<p>He’s off his meds again. Sigh.</p>
<p>He seems nice</p>
<p>Melania is going to be pissed. Life is HARD.</p>
<p>Are the pee pee tapes real? This has been one of the most popular questions surrounding the controversial Steele dossier — not one of the most important of course, but one of the most popular.&#160;According to the dossier, The Donald invited a couple young prostitutes over to play on the […]</p>
<p>Just a reminder that not only are Trump fans stupid, but they are also violent.</p>
<p>Expect a Trump Twitter-tantrum in 3…2…</p>
<p>Our country is run by idiots</p>
<p>Trump’s Secretary of Education just got schooled.</p>
<p>Strange thing for a woman who literally sleeps on the job to say.</p>
<p>Trump does seem to like making things more difficult for himself, doesn’t he?</p>
<p>Hint: it involves the Hatch Act.</p>
<p>Is there a single decent Republican?</p> | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2012/09/01/a-long-list-of-president-obamas-accomplishments-with-citations/ | 4 |
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<p>With nine starting seniors gone from last year’s championship squad, not to mention the state’s coaching dean in Klaus Weber, who retired, the No. 4-seeded Bobcats seemed likely to be gone from the title chase by now.</p>
<p>But that’s not the case.</p>
<p>Persevering through driving rain Friday that made cutting and turning an adventure, No. 4 Bosque upended top-seed Hope Christian to advance to today’s 3:30 p.m. championship match against No. 2 Santa Fe Prep.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>No. 4 BOSQUE 2, No. 1 HOPE CHRISTIAN 1: The weather wasn’t exactly what Bobcat forward Zech Meddleton was hoping for, but it didn’t slow him down, either.</p>
<p>“It really didn’t play to my advantage, this weather,” he said while shivering and wiping the rain from his face. “I’m not the kind of person that likes this weather. I like it nice and warm. I couldn’t use too much of my speed.”</p>
<p>So instead, he broke out some power. Meddleton’s booming shot from about five yards inside the midfield stripe eight minutes into the second half broke a 1-all tie and provided the winning margin.</p>
<p>“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that,” he said. “I kind of saw the keeper was out, and I said, ‘If you don’t shoot, you don’t score,’ so I took the shot and it went in. And I was like, ‘All right.'”</p>
<p>Meddleton also scored the game’s first goal for Bosque (14-7-2), tucking it in during the 21st minute off a feed from Cooper Tezak.</p>
<p>But in the 30th minute, Ben Gutierrez tied it for the Huskies (16-5-1).</p>
<p>Hope ratcheted up the pressure over the remaining minutes, as well, forcing Bobcats goalkeeper Jerry McKinney to come up with a big saves in a brief sequence.</p>
<p>Hope had a direct kick from about 22 yards out. McKinney punched it out, but it wasn’t cleared. So moments later, he had to dive to knock away a ball that came flying out of a scrum.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I told myself, ‘I can’t let this go in,'” he said. “This is my senior year. This is the first time I actually started as playing goalie. This is my family and I’m not going to lose for my team.”</p>
<p>One the second one, McKinney was momentarily screened.</p>
<p>“I saw it at the last second and it just clicked in my head that I had to dive,” he said. “Dive and pray.”</p>
<p>Bosque coach Jason Cloyes said this is the culmination of a yearlong struggle.</p>
<p>“We talked about this nine months ago and what we wanted to do,” he said. “We knew this was the game we were probably going to get. We were blown out by them (6-2) earlier this season. We went back to the drawing board. People got healthy. This team has heart and soul.”</p>
<p>No. 2 SANTA FE PREP 1, No. 3 SOCORRO 0: Elliot Thornburg let fly a shot from about 20 yards out late in the first half, and the Blue Griffins (17-3) made it stand up.</p>
<p>“The defender missed it and I got a good touch and I ripped it,” Thornburg said. “This season, we worked on capitalizing on those kinds of opportunities. Just keeping calm and sticking the ball in the back of the net.”</p>
<p>With the conditions deteriorating as play continued, Thornburg said it was good to have a lead to protect.</p>
<p>“In the second half, you started to slip a lot,” he said. “It makes the game a lot harder. It’s about slowing down your game a little bit. Being more patient and not going into tackles as hard because somebody is going to get hurt.”</p>
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<p /> | Class 1A-4A boys soccer: Bosque improbably returns to final | false | https://abqjournal.com/882744/bosque-improbably-returns-to-final.html | 2 |
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<p>We don't understand how anyone can seriously argue that texting while driving is safe and doesn't need to be illegal. It's hard to believe even one of our legislators would vote against a ban on texting while driving. But it didn't pass the Legislature in previous years, and it's too soon to know what will happen this year.</p>
<p>Some have argued that we don't need any new legislation because there is already a law on the books that bans distracted driving. This begs the question, "How is that working for you?" because it doesn't take much looking around at other drivers to see people texting and driving all the time. Maybe some folks need an absolute law that clearly states it is against the law in New Mexico to text while driving. It won't solve the problem, but maybe it will help - even a little.</p>
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<p>The proposed legislation would outlaw typing on handheld mobile devices and use of websites, but it would allow GPS use and hands-free texting. It sounds reasonable.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, young texters are much more talented than we are - it's amazing to watch their thumbs in action. But still, most people who text use two hands; even if they text with one hand, the other hand holds the phone. It would seem difficult, if not impossible to have enough hands to also hold the steering wheel. And, if you're watching what you text, watching the road and checking your mirrors, you might need more eyes than we have.</p>
<p>Even if young drivers have only a few of the superpowers they believe they have, they don't have enough powers to eliminate the distraction of texting, and they are truly not indestructible. We care about the safety of these young drivers as well as the safety of the others on the road with them.</p>
<p>Texting is a great communication tool, it is easy, and it is great fun. It has become a staple in many people's lives; however, seldom are texts so critical that they must be written or read "right now." If something is critical, pull off the road to communicate with others; otherwise, it can wait a few minutes.</p>
<p>Statistics back up the logic of not texting and driving. A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute states that the risk of crashes is 23 times worse for those texting than it is for non-distracted drivers. Another study shows the crash risk is more than double what it is for those talking on the phone. It is even, according to a study, more risky than drunken driving.</p>
<p>Even if those studies are exaggerated, it would be difficult to argue it is safe to drive while texting.</p>
<p>Everyone understands that passing a law will not solve the problem. Enforcement will be difficult, and people will not change their habits easily. But we must start somewhere. New Mexico's legislators should ban texting while driving during this session.</p>
<p>Contact the Ryans at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Texts while driving should be banned | false | https://abqjournal.com/346296/texts-while-driving-should-be-banned.html | 2 |
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<p>The Associated PressOct. 04, 2005</p>
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<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>Eight journalism and open-government organizations filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging the Honolulu City Council held secret meetings on council business in violation of Hawaii's open-meetings law.</p>
<p>The lawsuit alleges council members discussed a reorganization plan in private talks before holding a public meeting. The reorganization resolution was passed July 13 after seven of the nine council members agreed in private talks to vote in favor of the measure, violating the so-called Sunshine Law, the lawsuit says.</p> | Lawsuit claims Honolulu City Council held secret meetings | false | https://poynter.org/news/lawsuit-claims-honolulu-city-council-held-secret-meetings | 2005-10-05 | 2 |
<p>In a new <a href="http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/samuel-l-jackson-playboy-interview" type="external">Playboy interview</a>, the <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/samuel-l-jackson-highest-grossing-actor-guinness-book-world-records-254155" type="external">highest-grossing</a> actor of all time, who has made an art of the f-bomb, says Barack Obama should “be fucking presidential,” and, on GOP obstruction, “there was a time we would be in the streets about this shit.”</p>
<p>PLAYBOY: Or a society that views graduating from college or grad school as elitist, or one in which President Obama or other highly educated Americans consciously drop gs off the ends of words to sound like Joe Average?</p>
<p>JACKSON: First of all, we know it ain’t because of his blackness, so I say stop trying to “relate.” Be a leader. Be fucking presidential. Look, I grew up in a society where I could say “It ain’t” or “What it be” to my friends. But when I’m out presenting myself to the world as me, who graduated from college, who had family who cared about me, who has a well-read background, I fucking conjugate.</p>
<p>PLAYBOY: With your and your wife’s militant revolutionary background, how political are you today, especially having told Ebony magazine in 2012 that you wanted President Obama to “get scary”?</p>
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<p>JACKSON: He got a little heated about the kids getting killed in Newtown and about the gun law. He’s still a safe dude. But with those Republicans, we’re now in a situation where even if he said, “I want to give you motherfuckers a raise,” they’d go, “Fuck you! We don’t want a raise!” I don’t know how we fix this bullshit. How do we fix the fact that politicians aren’t trying to serve the people, they’re just trying to serve their party and their closed ideals? How do we find a way to say, “You motherfuckers are fired because you’re not doing shit about taking care of the country”? If Hillary Clinton decides to run, she’s going to kick their fucking asses, and those motherfuckers would rather see the country go down in flames than let the times change. But as I tell my daughter, there was a time we would be in the streets about this shit.</p>
<p>PLAYBOY: You mean instead of signing petitions on Facebook and Twitter?</p>
<p>JACKSON: You need to have your physical body out there in the streets and let these people—and the rest of the world—know. When our antiwar movement led the world, it was because people could see us in the streets, see our faces, hear the protest music. You can’t do that shit blogging in a room. I can’t see you on your keyboard. I can’t see you sitting there in the dark. Things happen when people get out in the street.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Peter Z. Scheer</a></p> | Sam Jackson on Obama, Republicans and Civil Disobedience | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sam-jackson-on-obama-republicans-and-civil-disobedience/ | 2013-09-25 | 4 |
<p>Good morning. Here are the stories we're following today:</p>
<p>A chunk of Melania Trump's Republican National Convention speech appears to have been lifted from Michelle Obama's address at the 2008 Democratic convention. Trump said on TODAY that she wrote the speech largely on her own, telling host Matt Lauer that: "I read once over it, and that's all. Because I wrote it … with as little help as possible." <a href="" type="internal">Read more in POLITICS</a>.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are virtually tied in the polls as the Republican National Convention convenes in Cleveland this week. Clinton now just barely edges out Trump in a direct head-to-head match-up, 46 percent to 45 percent. This is slightly down from the 3-point lead she held in last week's tracking poll numbers. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in POLITICS</a>.</p>
<p>The former Marine who killed three Louisiana law enforcement officers and wounded three others Sunday stalked his targets with military-like precision, looking past citizens as he moved through a commercial strip seeking more cops to shoot, authorities said. The gunman, a 29-year-old Missouri man named Gavin Long, traveled to Baton Rouge a few days before the attack and clearly wanted to kill police officers, authorities said Monday. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>Investigators <a href="" type="internal">found a hand-painted ISIS flag</a> in the room of the 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who wounded four in an ax and knife attack on a train in Germany, an official said Tuesday. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>The ex-wife of the truck driver who was killed by French police after mowing down Bastille Day revelers only found out that the father of her three children was the attacker when questioned at a police station, her lawyer said. "She was shocked because she realized she used to live with a man who was a criminal, and that she had three kids ... with a criminal," said Jean-Yves Garino of his client Hajer. <a href="" type="internal">Read more in NEWS</a>.</p>
<p>More than 400 Russian Olympic athletes will learn Tuesday whether they are banned from the Rio Summer Olympics. The International Olympic Committee ruling on their fate comes after a report into doping detailed what one U.S. official called "a mind-blowing level of corruption." <a href="" type="internal">Read more in SPORTS</a>.</p>
<p>A woman was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after she crashed into a South Los Angeles home Sunday, leaving a 7-year-old girl dead and three children critically hurt. <a href="" type="internal">Read more at NBC Los Angeles</a>.</p>
<p>Lester Holt is joined by NBC’s Tom Brokaw in Cleveland as the 2016 Republican National Convention kicks off.</p>
<p /> | KNOW IT ALL: Tuesday’s Top Stories at NBC News | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/know-it-all/know-it-all-tuesday-s-top-stories-nbc-news-n612211 | 2016-07-19 | 3 |
<p>Gold prices rose Friday, after weaker-than-expected U.S. inflation data eroded the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in coming months.</p>
<p>Gold for August delivery was recently up 1% at $1,229.80 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The consumer-price index was unchanged in June from the prior month, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected overall prices to advance 0.1% on the month.</p>
<p>Investors have been using U.S. data to gauge whether the economy is strong enough to bear a third interest-rate increase this year. Expectations that rates will stay low tend to boost gold, which struggles to compete with yield-bearing investments when borrowing costs rise.</p>
<p>"If the Fed is data dependent, they have yet to see the data for another rate increase," said Ira Epstein, a strategist at the Linn Group. "This is good for gold."</p>
<p>In base metals, copper for September delivery rose 0.7% to $2.6805 a pound.</p>
<p>Write to Ira Iosebashvili at [email protected]</p>
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<p>Gold prices rose Friday, after weaker-than-expected U.S. inflation data eroded the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in coming months.</p>
<p>Gold for August delivery closed up 0.8%, at $1,227.50 a troy ounce, on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.</p>
<p>The consumer-price index was unchanged in June from the prior month, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected overall prices to advance 0.1% on the month.</p>
<p>Investors have been using U.S. data to gauge whether the economy is strong enough to bear a third interest-rate increase this year. Expectations that rates will stay low tend to boost gold, which struggles to compete with yield-bearing investments when borrowing costs rise.</p>
<p>"If the Fed is data dependent, they have yet to see the data for another rate increase," said Ira Epstein, a strategist at the Linn Group. "This is good for gold."</p>
<p>In base metals, copper for September delivery rose 1.1%, to $2.6910 a pound.</p>
<p>Write to Ira Iosebashvili at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 14, 2017 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)</p> | Metals: Gold Prices Rise on U.S. Inflation Data | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/14/metals-gold-prices-rise-on-u-s-inflation-data.html | 2017-07-14 | 0 |
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