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<p>Instructions: Click on the images below to watch the ads and meet the attack lads. Red links will take you to an appendix with more information.</p>
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<p>Phone jamming (2002): Robo-call scheme organized by top GOP officials to tie up Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone banks in heated New Hampshire Senate race. Four officials indicted, three pled guilty, one convicted of a felony.</p>
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<p>originated by <a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#McGee" type="external">Charles McGee</a></p>
<p>works forRon Paul, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani</p>
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<p>orchestrated by <a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#Tobin" type="external">James Tobin</a></p>
<p>worked with <a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#McGee" type="external">Charles McGee</a></p>
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<p>linked to <a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#LaCivita" type="external">Chris LaCivita</a> and <a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#Nelson" type="external">Terry Nelson</a></p>
<p>linked to <a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#MPA" type="external">Mercury Public Affairs</a></p>
<p><a href="attack-lads-static-appendix.html#Nelson" type="external">Nelson</a> is the former campaign manager for John McCaine and was the producer for the “ <a href="attack-lads-static-harold.html" type="external">Harold, call me!</a>” attack ad.</p>
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<p><a href="/wp-content/uploads/legacy/news/feature/2008/01/attack-lads.pdf" type="external">Download the PDF</a> of this chart as it appeared in the magazine. <a href="/wp-content/uploads/legacy/news/feature/2008/01/attack-lads.jpg" type="external">Click here to see the whole chart</a></p>
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<p /> | Meet the Attack Lads – Phone Jamming | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/12/meet-attack-lads-phone-jamming/ | 2007-12-21 | 4 |
<p>· Reach out America – $100,000 · Red Cross – $300,000 · Salvation Army – $300,000 · Samaritan’s Purse – $100,000 · ASPCA – $25,000 · Catholic Charities – $25,000 · Direct Relief – $25,000 · Habitat for Humanity – $25,000 · Houston Humane Society – $25,000 · Operation Blessing – $25,000 · Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies – $25,000 · Team Rubicon – $25,000</p>
<p>The groups include Team Rubicon, a disaster response team formed by military veterans and faith based groups such as Catholic Charities, Operation Blessing, and Samaritan’s Purse. Trump also donated to the Houston Humane Society for pet rescues and adoptions.</p>
<p>The Trumps thanked the members of the White House Press corp for sending the White House some recommendations of worthy charitable organizations.</p>
<p>“The President and First Lady witnessed the work of some of these groups first hand while visiting with hurricane survivors, first responders, volunteers, and Federal, State, and local officials, and are proud to further assist the recovery efforts in Texas,” the statement read from the White House.</p>
<p>Remember when Obama donated $1,000,000.00 to charity after Hurricane Sandy?</p>
<p>Me neither.</p>
<p>SHARE if you love the Trump family! Making America great again…</p> | Donald Trump and Melania Trump Donate $1 Million to 12 Charities for Hurricane Harvey Relief | true | http://conservativedeplorable.com/donald-trump-melania-trump-donate-1-million-12-charities-hurricane-harvey-relief/ | 2017-09-07 | 0 |
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<p><a href="http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/milk01.html" type="external">Harvey Milk</a>, the San Francisco board of supervisors member who was <a href="http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0B15FA3A5413728DDDA10A94D9415B888BF1D3&amp;scp=9&amp;sq=Harvey%20Milk&amp;st=cse" type="external">assassinated</a> in 1978, never considered himself to be a local anything. Milk, who was born in New York and has a <a href="http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/02/M586/default.htm" type="external">high school</a> in Manhattan named for him, also lived in California, Florida, and Texas during his life. He held office in San Francisco for a mere 11 months, but he had dreams of becoming a mayor, a congressman, and after that, who knew? So it seems incongruous that California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would decline to commemorate Harvey Milk’s birthday by deeming the first openly gay man in the nation to hold public office a “local” figure.</p>
<p>The Milk bill, sponsored by California assemblyman Mark Leno, sought to make Milk’s birthday (May 22) a statewide “day of significance.” The bill itself is fairly low-impact: schools and government institutions would remain open for regular business. The bill would only “encourage” educational institutions to “conduct suitable commemorative exercises on that date.” In September, Schwarzenegger <a href="http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid62757.asp" type="external">vetoed the bill</a> saying that Milk’s “contributions should continue to be recognized at the local level.”</p>
<p>Last week Gus Van Sant’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unu-9vM9VZw" type="external">film</a> about Milk opened as a limited release. At the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the line to enter the movie <a href="/riff_blog/archives/2008/12/11112_thoughts_on_mil_2.html" type="external">stretched</a> for almost two blocks. According to the <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i4fc2c2322d54edac268c85d131ba4048=%22_blank%22" type="external">Hollywood Reporter</a>, the movie earned a record-breaking $1.4 million in three-day box office, or $38,375 per location. The film’s five-day Thanksgiving Weekend total gross was $1.9 million. Local level, indeed.</p>
<p>—Daniel Luzer</p>
<p>Image by flickr user Sam Spade</p>
<p /> | Harvey Milk: Local Legend or National Figure? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/12/harvey-milk-local-legend-or-national-figure/ | 2008-12-01 | 4 |
<p>LONDON — Donald Trump set off alarm bells in European capitals Thursday after <a href="" type="internal">suggesting he might not honor the core tenet of the NATO military alliance</a>.</p>
<p>Trump said the U.S. would not necessarily defend new NATO members in the Baltics in the event of Russian attack if he were elected to the White House.</p>
<p>He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/politics/donald-trump-issues.html?_r=0" type="external">told The New York Times</a> in an interview published Thursday that doing so would depend on whether those countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" in terms of their financial contributions to the alliance.</p>
<p>“You can’t forget the bills," Trump told the paper. "They have an obligation to make payments. Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what they’re supposed to make. That’s a big thing. You can’t say forget that.”</p>
<p>Trump's comments were perceived by some analysts as carte blanche for Russia to intimidate NATO allies and a potential harbinger of the alliance's collapse were Trump to be elected.</p>
<p>Given Trump's views on NATO, and on America's promises to allies, his election would trigger an immediate global crisis.</p>
<p>NATO's treaty states that an attack on one member state constitutes an attack on all, a principle enshrined in Article 5 of the alliance's treaty.</p>
<p>"If Trump wants to put conditions through Article 5, he would endanger the whole alliance," said Beyza Unal, a fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank.</p>
<p>Sarah Lain, a fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, agreed. She said that Article 5 is the "core" of NATO's defense strategy.</p>
<p>"The suggestion that Trump may consider abandoning a guarantee of protection to fellow NATO countries would in some ways indeed make NATO obsolete," Lain told NBC News in an email.</p>
<p>Estonia's president was among the first to hit back, saying on Twitter that his nation has met its commitments and fought — " <a href="https://twitter.com/ZCarlander/status/756032974253068288" type="external">with no caveats</a>" — when Article 5 was previously used.</p>
<p>Article 5 has only been invoked once — in wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.</p>
<p>The head of NATO follows later, saying in a statement to NBC News: "I will not interfere in the U.S. election campaign, but what I can do is say what matters for NATO."</p>
<p>"Solidarity among Allies is a key value for NATO," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. "Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States."</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton's campaign noted that after Trump's remarks, issuing a scathing statement saying it is "fair to assume" that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "rooting" for the Republican candidate.</p>
<p>Jake Sullivan, a senior Clinton policy adviser, noted how the U.S. has for decades given an "ironclad guarantee" to its NATO allies to come to their defense if attacked, "just as they came to our defense" after 9/11.</p>
<p>"Donald Trump was asked if he would honor that guarantee. He said ... maybe, maybe not," Sullivan said in a statement. "The president is supposed to be the leader of the free world. Donald Trump apparently doesn't even believe in the free world."</p>
<p>It's important to remember that Article 5 doesn't explicitly define what allies must do in response to any attack on a member, noted former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter.</p>
<p>"But for the credibility of the alliance and of the United States, there has to be no doubt in the aggressor’s mind that we — the U.S. — would respond," Hunter said in an email to NBC News.</p>
<p>Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis tore into Trump's latest remarks in a new piece in <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/21/the-certain-trumpet-donald-trump-new-york-times-interview-baltics-russia-nato/?wp_login_redirect=0" type="external">Foreign Policy</a>, writing that "our nation is built on the values that we share with our European colleagues."</p>
<p>"And, by the way, virtually all of them came from Europe’s Age of Enlightenment: democracy, liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and on and on," he wrote. "Do we really want to replace them with a balance sheet and a 'what have you done for me lately' attitude?"</p>
<p>Reflecting the oftentimes contradictory messages from the campaign, Trump’s campaign chair Paul Manafort later told reporters that the candidate “believes in the [NATO] agreements” and said The New York Times often is “inaccurate.” The newspaper <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html" type="external">published a transcript of the interview online</a>.</p>
<p>Amidst the uproar over Trump's remarks, the White House on Thursday stressed that America's commitment to NATO’s principle of mutual self-defense was “ironclad.”</p>
<p>“There should be no mistake or miscalculation made about this country’s commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.</p>
<p>The interview was not the first time Trump raised questions about America's commitment to NATO, but the remarks published on the eve of his address <a href="" type="internal">to the Republican convention</a> took on greater weight now that he's formally won the GOP nomination.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Who's Advising Donald Trump on Foreign Policy?</a></p>
<p>They were the latest illumination of his "America First" approach — which assesses foreign policy in terms of economic benefit and claws back the longstanding role of the U.S. as global watchdog.</p>
<p>“We are going to take care of this country first ... before we worry about everyone else in the world,” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html?smid=tw-share" type="external">he told the newspaper.</a></p>
<p>When asked about the importance of U.S. global leadership in wake of World War II, Trump interjected "How is it helping us?" He also pointed to trade deficits.</p>
<p>The Republican candidate has been hounded throughout his campaign by criticism <a href="" type="internal">over his lack of foreign policy credentials — and unorthodox suggestions</a>.</p>
<p>When asked by The New York Times to elaborate on his plans to defeat ISIS, Trump was reticent.</p>
<p>"I don’t want to be specific because I don’t want ISIS to know what I’m planning," he told the newspaper.</p>
<p>Trump also was asked about Turkey's crackdown in wake of a <a href="" type="internal">failed military coup</a> there — and the candidate took another opportunity to drill down on his message to focus on America.</p>
<p>The U.S. isn't "a very good messenger" to discuss civil liberties at the moment, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html?smid=tw-share" type="external">he told the newspaper</a>.</p>
<p>“How are we going to lecture when people are shooting policemen in cold blood?” he said.</p> | Donald Trump Remarks on NATO Trigger Alarm Bells in Europe | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-remarks-nato-trigger-alarm-bells-europe-n613911 | 2016-07-21 | 3 |
<p>On Monday, Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) said that President Obama should push for <a href="http://www.capradio.org/articles/2013/12/16/brown-praises-calif-obamacare-rollout,-credits-prop-25-for-budget-health/" type="external">more taxes</a> on the American people. He said that California’s Obamacare rollout was going well and “on solid ground,” despite the fact that <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=california%20cancelled%20million%20individual%20plans&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CEcQFjAB&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2Fhealth%2Fci_24567862%2Fone-million-california-health-plans-may-only-get&amp;ei=FYKwUvvoCsTioASh_ICgBw&amp;usg=AFQjCNEUCWYRoeZBVAoFqCrYlKtSrrt3Bg&amp;sig2=XgjI1f87cX00Ff0Y-PHdRQ&amp;bvm=bv.57967247,d.cGU" type="external">approximately 1 million Californians</a> have lost their individual health plans and that <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/12/10/Covered-California-paper-applications" type="external">thousands face a coverage gap beginning on January 1</a> thanks to a paperwork backlog. Brown added, “This is a big, huge, impactful program. All the things that are going to follow from it are not clear. So rather than taking satisfaction, I’d rather take precautions.”</p>
<p>Speaking at an event in Silicon Valley, Brown said that the federal government should follow the fiscal example of the California state government. “We cut, we taxed and we’re still investing,” Brown said. “Washington can cut, tax and invest – and those three things are very important to stabilize and advance our country.”</p> | CA's Jerry Brown: Feds Should Raise Taxes Like We Did | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/cas-jerry-brown-feds-should-raise-taxes-we-did | 2018-10-06 | 0 |
<p>Yesterday I got interviewed by my local paper, Boulder's Daily Camera, for a forthcoming feature on business blogging. Just now I mentioned that in a <a href="http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2005/04/26/blogs-and-the-business-value-of-relationships" type="external">posting on my weblog</a>. Then I saw new posting from PR maven Steve Rubel, " <a href="http://www.micropersuasion.com/2005/04/the_era_of_tran.html" type="external">The Era of Transparent Media Interviews</a>," and it got me thinking. ...More and more, journalists interview people who have their own weblogs. When a reporter interviews someone, the assumption is that, as long as the journalist has properly identified him/herself, anything the source says is considered on the record unless there is a specific, overt agreement otherwise.But does that tacit agreement work in reverse? That is, as a blogger being interviewed by a reporter, could I also consider the content of the conversation (including the reporter's questions and description of the story plan) on record for the purposes of blogging? Hmmm .... That seems fair and just to me, personally, and in keeping with my belief that <a href="http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2005/04/22/journalism-class-craft-faith" type="external">journalists are not a special, privileged class</a>. However, the quandary of whether interviews are mutually on record perhaps would be handled best by <a href="" type="internal">Poynter's ethicists</a>.For now, here's what I intend to do: The next time I'm called for a media interview, I'll establish at the outset that I consider both sides of the conversation to be mutually on record. If the reporter has issues with that, we'll negotiate as warranted before proceeding with the interview. Similarly, since I'm also a journalist, when I interview sources I will make a point of asking if they have their own site or weblog, and whether they're intending to write about the interview. I will consider the whole conversation mutually on record unless otherwise specified. We'll see how that goes.</p> | Reporters: Are YOU 'On the Record'? | false | https://poynter.org/news/reporters-are-you-record | 2005-04-26 | 2 |
<p>In this week’s edition of “Left, Right and Center,” co-hosts Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer and Matt Miller weigh in about the Democratic convention in Denver, Barack Obama’s historic nomination acceptance speech, and whether John McCain made a sound decision in choosing wild-card Sarah Palin as his VP.</p>
<p>KCRW’s Left, Right and Center:</p>
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<p /> | 'Left, Right & Center' Looks at Dems in Denver, McCain's Surprise | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/left-right-center-looks-at-dems-in-denver-mccains-surprise/ | 2008-08-31 | 4 |
<p>Photo courtesy of &lt;a href="http://storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/"&gt;The Story of Stuff website&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
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<p>Annie Leonard, creator of <a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/" type="external">The Story of Stuff</a>, a popular web video that argues against consumerism, released a new video yesterday on cap and trade. Like her earlier effort, <a href="http://storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/" type="external">The Story of Cap-and-Trade</a> features engaging narration and cute, easy-to-understand comic sketches to explain an extremely complex issue.</p>
<p>The problem? Leonard vastly oversimplifies cap and trade and its problems. The video blames the current difficulties surrounding cap and trade entirely on the policy itself, not the lawmakers and special interest groups seeking to load the legislation with exceptions and giveaways. The problems she highlights would dog any proposal to address climate change in the US. If Congress suddenly adopted a carbon tax, the coal, oil, and gas lobbies, aided by their favorite senators, would carve out gaping loopholes for their industries. The policy isn’t the real villain&#160; here—it’s the politics.&#160;</p>
<p>“The next time somebody tells you cap and trade is the best we’re going to get, don’t believe them,” Leonard concludes. But what superior proposal has any kind of meaningful political support? Leonard never attempts to explain this. The reality is that ditching cap and trade now would leave us with no politically viable legislative options to combat climate change at all.&#160;</p>
<p>The estimable David Roberts has a <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-01-annie-leonard-misses-the-mark-her-new-video-story-cap-and-trade/" type="external">thorough take-down</a> of the video at Grist, which I recommend. And here’s the video, so you can decide for yourself:</p>
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<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7908590" type="external">The Story of Cap &amp; Trade</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/storyofstuff" type="external">Story of Stuff Project</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com" type="external">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p /> | The Story of Cap and Trade | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/story-cap-and-trade/ | 2009-12-02 | 4 |
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<p>Larry Gallegos, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County Fire Department, said it was a tire fire on the far corner of the southwest mesa property, away from the house.</p>
<p>"It will be going on for a while," Gallegos said. "Once those start, they're hard to put out."</p>
<p>Officers with the Albuquerque Police Department Open Space Unit provided cover for the firefighters due to the property's recent history with law enforcement, said APD spokesman Tanner Tixier.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office SWAT team was called to the site to arrest a man on a felony warrant. The man, Edward Jaramillo, 45, shot and killed himself during the hours-long SWAT situation.</p>
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<p>The property is in a nearly-deserted mesa southwest of the city and firefighters ran into trouble with the muddy roads.</p>
<p>"As firefighters were arriving on scene, their truck became stuck in deep mud and needed to be pulled out by our Open Space SUVs," Tixier said. "This is a great example of inter-agency cooperation between local first responder agencies."</p>
<p>APD Open Space Officers had to use their SUVs to pull a firetruck out of the mud. (Courtesy of APD)</p>
<p>A tire fire ignited on the southwest mesa Thursday afternoon. (Courtesy of APD)</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Firefighters battle tire blaze on Southwest Mesa | false | https://abqjournal.com/620852/firefighters-battle-tire-fire-on-southwest-mesa.html | 2 |
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<p>The Institute of Basic Life Principles has been a leader in the Christian homeschooling movement since the 60s. It has devoted supporters among Conservative politicians and other scumbags like the Duggars. It’s whole program is meant to raise wholesome, chaste, bible believing Christians unfamiliar with worldly things such as condoms and evolution.</p>
<p>And, <a href="" type="internal">as we’ve previously mentioned</a>, IBLP’s founder Bill Gothard has a little bit of a problem with sexual harassment and abuse of women as young as 13 and 14 years old. He resigned last year after over 30 women accused him of sexual misconduct–although an “internal investigation” cleared him of wrongdoing. Now, five&#160;of those women are striking back, and suing IBLP for having&#160;“enabled and covered up sexual abuse and harassment of interns, employees, and other participants in its programs.”</p>
<p>Gretchen Wilkinson, Charis Barker, Rachel Frost, Rachel Lees and a Jane Doe are all seeking $50,000 in damages from the organization, claiming that not only did they ignore Gothard’s misconduct, but also engaged in a conspiracy to cover it up.</p>
<p>Here is a <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-pdf-institute-in-basic-life-principals-lawsuit-20151022-htmlstory.html" type="external">list of the claims</a> being brought against IBLP in the lawsuit:</p>
<p>Obviously, I’d prefer Gothard be sent to jail, but if this is the only current resource these women have? I say sue the hell out of them. The practice of covering up sexual abuse in these kinds of religious organizations is sickeningly common, as we saw in the case of Josh Duggar and in the cases of the many child-molesting priests in the Catholic Church, and it needs to stop. In this case, sunlight may be the best disinfectant.</p>
<p>[ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/10/22/five-women-sue-bill-gothards-ministry-that-has-ties-to-the-duggars/" type="external">The Washington Post</a>]</p> | Duggar-Affiliated Homeschool Ministry Sued By Five Women Over Sexual Abuse | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-10-23/duggar-affiliated-homeschool-ministry-sued-by-five-women-over-sexual-abuse/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dduggars | 2018-10-07 | 4 |
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<p>Officer Daren DeAguero said a little after 3 p.m. a car T-boned a truck.</p>
<p>“Speed appears to have been a factor in this accident,” he said.</p>
<p>He said there were three people in the car and one in the truck.</p>
<p>Two passengers in the car died at the scene and the driver is currently in critical condition, DeAguero said.</p>
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<p>He said the driver of the truck was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.</p>
<p>The three people in the car have not been identified, DeAguero said.</p>
<p>The intersection has reopened but the incident is still being investigated.</p>
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<p /> | 2 dead, one critically injured in West Side crash, police say | false | https://abqjournal.com/997999/2-dead-2-critically-injured-in-west-side-crash-police-say.html | 2017-05-03 | 2 |
<p>The NFL’s commissioner, Roger Goodell’s contract is up for renewal. Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones is on the offensive and threatening to sue the league. Here’s why and where the feud stems from.</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY (AP) — The NFL has extended its commitment to Mexico by announcing Sunday that the league will play a game here each year from 2019-21.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The league and the Ministry of Tourism announced the agreement shortly before the Oakland Raiders took on the New England Patriots at Azteca Stadium in the second game of a current three-year deal that expires after next season. The Raiders also played here last year against Houston in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 76,473 people.</p>
<p>The Ministry of Tourism said hosting NFL games provides an economic impact to Mexico City and the country from fans who travel for the game. The NFL also holds a fan fest leading up to the game, as well as other promotional events.</p>
<p>The NFL is trying to increase its international presence. The league has been playing games in London since 2007 and had four games there this season.</p>
<p>The new agreement with Mexico still needs to be finalized before it is signed. The announcement did not specify where the games will played or what teams will come. There is also a new stadium in Monterrey that could host an NFL game.</p>
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<p>There has been no announcement of which teams will play in Mexico next season.</p>
<p>The NFL played its first regular season game in Mexico City in 2005 when the San Francisco 49ers took on the Arizona Cardinals.</p> | NFL extends deal to play in Mexico from 2019-21 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/19/nfl-extends-deal-to-play-in-mexico-from-2019-21.html | 2017-11-19 | 0 |
<p>Oct. 9 (UPI) — Michigan’s chief medical officer faces two new felony charges — including involuntary manslaughter — that were filed Monday for her role in Flint’s water crisis.</p>
<p>Special prosecutor Todd Flood <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2017/10/09/obstruction-hearing-eden-wells/106463504/" type="external">also filed</a> a felony misconduct in office charge against Dr. Eden Wells due to “some revelations” during testimony in last week’s hearing of Michigan Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon. Lyon faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice.</p>
<p>“I really can’t get into the details of it but I think we’d be derelict if we didn’t charge her,” Flood told reporters. “Based on new review of other documents testimony that came out last week, we believe that discovery put us in this place.”</p>
<p>Prosecutors <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/06/14/Michigan-health-director-charged-with-involuntary-manslaughter-in-tainted-Flint-water/3081497452547/" type="external">previously charged</a> Wells with felony obstruction of justice and lying to a peace officer, a misdemeanor. She faces up to 5 years in prison for the obstruction charge.</p>
<p>Wells’ <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2017/10/09/eden-wells-flint-water-crisis-charges/745571001/" type="external">new manslaughter charge</a> is for the death of Robert Skidmore, 85, who died of Legionnaires’ disease. Five other current and former Flint and Michigan officials also have been charged for failing to prevent his death.</p>
<p>At least 12 people died of the disease after city officials switched the Flint’s water supply in April 2014 from treated Lake Huron water to raw water from the Flint River, treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.</p>
<p>The untreated, corrosive water caused lead to leech from the city’s water pipes, poisoning thousands of Flint residents over a period of 17 months.</p>
<p>Michigan plans spend $87 million to replace 18,000 contaminated water pipes in Flint by January 2020.</p> | Flint water crisis: Michigan medical officer charged with manslaughter | false | https://newsline.com/flint-water-crisis-michigan-medical-officer-charged-with-manslaughter/ | 2017-10-09 | 1 |
<p>If you live in Falls Church, Virginia, and you see a funny looking aircraft circling over your neighborhood don’t be alarmed. It’s just the Pentagon looking for the sniper. CNN says Rummy wants to help out, so he has approved “military reconnaissance” of undetermined origin to snoop around the Washington area. CNN says the Pentagon has not disclosed what kind of equipment will be used. Yet earlier in the day I saw a report indicating the military will use General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator UAV drones. They even showed video footage of the damn things.</p>
<p>Rummy just shot another big hole in the Posse Comitatus Act. It’s looked like Swiss cheese for years, ever since the military was “enlisted” to combat evil drug dealers. You know, drug dealers who sell CIA certified heroin and cocaine on the streets of American cities. According to CNN, the Pentagon is not really trashing the Posse Comitatus Act because there is no “direct involvement” between the cops and the military.</p>
<p>Maybe the copywriters over at CNN need to read up on the Posse Comitatus Act. “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” Of course, Rummy does not need Congress to tell him what to do. His “guidelines,” recently published in the New York Times, demonstrate what he thinks about Congress and the American people.</p>
<p>Predator drones are “part of the Army or the Air Force,” even if guys in cammies and helmets toting M16s are not accompanying the cops as they look for the sniper. Well, a lot of cops are wearing cammies and helmets and toting M16s these days, so maybe the point is moot. I’m sure David Koresh didn’t see a lot of difference between ATF agents and Nazi storm troopers. Or did the father of Elian Gonzalez. Or do a lot of dark skinned people in America’s inner cities. But never mind. I’m digressing.</p>
<p>It’s October. That means the Pentagon may have to fly its drones in bad weather — and the Predator does not do well in rain, wind, snow, or cold temperatures. Predators crash, too, although the Pentagon does not release such embarrassing statistics. A French journalist reported a while back that a UAV drone was inadvertently thrown off course over Kosovo. It seems a French officer used the same radio frequency on which the UAV was operating. He interrupted the connection between the aircraft and its ground control station. The drone ended up in the hands of the Serbs, who were likely ecstatic. In 1998, the Pakistanis were thankful as well when two of Clinton’s cruise missiles went off target and landed in their front yard unscathed. It was a benefit bestowed to Pakistan’s missile program which, at the time, was under US embargo.</p>
<p>Think of all the air traffic over Washington. Think about all the telephone wires, high power lines, microwave towers and cell phone repeaters. Rummy’s idea of catching the sniper with the help of a drone is an accident waiting to happen. Maybe Rummy didn’t think this one through. Then again, maybe he did. Maybe this is yet another hole shot through the Swiss cheese that is the Posse Comitatus Act. Maybe if Dubya and Rummy keep blurring the lines a lot of us will no longer be able to tell the difference between cops and soldiers. Maybe we will finally believe this is what needs to be done to protect us from vicious terrorists. Maybe we will give up the fourth, fifth, and sixth amendments to the Constitution in order to fight terrorism. Maybe we will give up the third amendment for good measure–you know, the one prohibiting “peacetime quartering of troops in private dwellings without owners’ consent” (well, the Pentagon will have to base those UAV stations somewhere). Then again, if Dubya has his way, peace will soon become a curious anachronism.</p>
<p>The absurdity of the whole sniper affair is stunning. For instance, last week Ari Fleischer remarked to reporters in the White House briefing room that “the cost of one bullet” was much preferable to war against Iraq. He was talking about taking out Saddam by way of assassination, something the CIA and military intel have done for decades — from Pegasus to Phoenix and beyond. In 1997, responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, the CIA released its notorious “Operation PBSUCCESS” assassination manual, used in the 1954 coup to oust — and kill — the elected president of Guatemala. So-called conservatives have talked about assassination and mass murder for years — killing people they disagree with by single bullet or multiple bunker-buster munitions. They now say the CIA must be allowed to get back into the murder and torture business. Some of us think they never got out of the business.</p>
<p>Dubya and clan have created a moral climate where murder is simply a political option — and, lately, the preferred political option. Instead of negotiation and containment, they insist on “pre-emption,” which is simply another word for killing the other guy before he even thinks about killing you — or maybe before he can extend the dreaded olive branch. Perhaps most insane and irresponsible, Team Dubya has managed to demolish the taboo surrounding the unthinkable use of nuclear weapons in the name of geopolitical expediency. It seems Dubya and Crew want the entire world to believe America is a nation filled with Washington Beltway snipers. America has a rep known around the world – everywhere, that is, except in America. Corporate media generated distraction and deception is an artform in the good old U.S. of A. History, as Henry Ford opined, is bunk.</p>
<p>Fact is, US politicians like mass murderers. In the recent past, the US befriended and supported — both overtly and covertly — sundry murderers and demented thugs. Here’s the short list — Mohamed Suharto (2 million killed in Indonesia, 250,000 in East Timor), Ferdinand Marcos (not only killed thousands in the Philippines, but also looted more than $35 billion), Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (had the democratically elected president of Chile murdered; thousands of political opponents killed and disappeared; 250,000 people gaoled, tortured, or exiled), Anastasio Somoza Debayle (50,000 killed in Nicaragua; 120,000 exiled and 600,000 made homeless), and Pol Pot (3 million killed, or between a quarter and a third of Cambodia’s population). Oh, and let’s not forget Saddam Hussein, acquaintance and yes-man of various US presidents until 1990 when he misunderstood his marching orders. He has gassed and killed his own people with US assistance.</p>
<p>The Washington sniper is small potatoes. More people are killed each week from unsafe working conditions, uninspected food, medical malpractice, and entirely legal (and profitable) drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. But then, of course, those are mundane and wholly non-sensational crimes when compared to a sniper who it now appears received his training — or, at least, his inspiration — from the US military. All told, the Washington sniper may turn out to be yet another unexpected instance of blowback, if not politically at least culturally.</p>
<p>But never mind. I think I hear a Predator buzzing outside my window.</p>
<p>KURT NIMMO is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Cartoon by Ben Tripp.</p> | Predators, Snipers and the Posse Comitatus Act | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/10/17/predators-snipers-and-the-posse-comitatus-act/ | 2002-10-17 | 4 |
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<p>HOBBS, N.M. (AP) — Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy on a street in Hobbs.</p>
<p>Authorities say officers were called just before 3 a.m. Saturday to East Sanger Street to reports of shots fired.</p>
<p>Responding officers found the teenage victim with a gunshot wound.</p>
<p>The boy was taken to a hospital but pronounced dead.</p>
<p>His identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Authorities say the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque will conduct an autopsy on his body.</p>
<p>Officers closed off part of the street to traffic for their investigation.</p>
<p>Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Hobbs Police Department.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 16-year-old boy shot to death in Hobbs | false | https://abqjournal.com/496681/16-year-old-boy-shot-to-death-in-hobbs.html | 2 |
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<p>Was this another terrorist attack?</p>
<p>The National Transportation Safety Committee investigator, Nurchayo said listening to recording from black boxes over and over again can be disturbing and requires utmost mental strength.</p>
<p>“Listening to the playback of a black box involved in a crash is not like listening to music or a discussion.</p>
<p>“We are listening to a recording that represents the last moments before the crash and it is disturbing. There are times where the investigators would get unnerved listening to the recording,” he told Viva.co.id.</p>
<p>Analysing the recording while listening to their final words like “Allahuakhbar” repeatedly, give the investigators goose bumps, Nurcahyo said.</p>
<p>“It is as if we can feel them… Allahuakhbar, Allahuakhbar were the last words said before they died.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/qz8501-pilots-last-words-goosebumps-045026846.html" type="external">Yahoo News</a></p> | CHILLING: Last Words out of AirAsia Pilot were ‘Allahu Akhbar’ | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/chilling-last-words-airasia-pilot-allahu-akhbar/ | 0 |
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<p>On January 9, 2003—five years before he would become the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee—Senator John McCain strode to the Senate floor and began a speech by citing the National Academy of Sciences: “Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise.” He then pointed to a host of scientific studies that had outlined the negative consequences of global warming. “The United States must do something,” he proclaimed, announcing that he and Senator Joseph Lieberman were introducing legislation that day to establish mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions and set up a system for the trading of emissions credits.</p>
<p>Environmental groups endorsed the McCain-Lieberman bill, which compelled major industries to reduce greenhouse gases to 2000 levels by 2010. The League of Conservation Voters called it “a relatively modest reduction” but an “important first step” that would “send an important signal to the global community.” It was indeed the first serious attempt in the Senate to impose a cap on global warming emissions.</p>
<p>Ten months later, the bill was defeated by a relatively close margin, 55 to 43. (Then-Senator John Edwards, who missed the vote, had indicated he supported the bill.) Environmental advocates in Washington considered this a decent start considering that six years earlier the Senate had voted unanimously for a nonbinding resolution that signaled opposition to the Kyoto global warming treaty. With this bill, McCain established himself as the undisputed Republican leader on climate change. Convinced that global warming had already led to more droughts and wildfires in his home state of Arizona, McCain vowed to keep fighting for the measure. But within a year and a half, McCain would lose ground and set back the effort to reduce emissions because of a profound political miscalculation, his own stubbornness, and, most of all, his deep attachment to nuclear power.</p>
<p>About a year after their bill was defeated, McCain and Lieberman began drafting a new version. It was close to the original, but with one significant addition: billions of dollars in tax subsidies for the nuclear energy industry.</p>
<p>McCain had long been an advocate of nuclear power. “He feels strongly that nuclear power will be one of the keys to reducing emissions,” says Heather Wicke, who was his environmental legislative aide at the time. But environmentalists who had worked with McCain and Lieberman on the first bill were stunned. In one meeting, lobbyists for environmental groups attempted to persuade McCain not to attach nuclear subsidies to the legislation, arguing that doing so would weaken support for the bill. “He shook his finger at us and scolded us,” says one participant at the meeting, who recalls McCain saying, “You’re wrong and I’m right.” Wicke, now the director of policy for the Piedmont Environmental Council, notes that McCain had already made up his mind and that the session was “testy.”</p>
<p>In meetings with McCain’s staff, environmental lobbyists argued the obvious points, according to Karen Wayland, legislative director of the Natural Resources Defense Council: what to do with nuclear waste, the need to prevent nuclear proliferation, the problem with security at nuclear facilities. They noted that legislation restricting greenhouse emissions in and of itself would create a competitive advantage for nuclear energy companies. They made no headway, so the enviros appealed to Lieberman and his staff. “Lieberman didn’t seem to care for this provision,” one of the green lobbyists remembers, “but he needed McCain, and McCain was pushing hard” for the nuclear subsidies.</p>
<p>Part of McCain’s motivation was political. According to Wicke, he and his aides figured that these subsidies could attract several pro-nuclear Republicans, and they had their eyes on Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Senator Liddy Dole of North Carolina. Wicke was concerned at the time that the nuclear subsidies would cost the measure support and that a bill loaded with money for the nuclear energy industry would contradict McCain’s high-profile opposition to subsidies—which was partly responsible for his reputation as a fiscal conservative and a maverick. In June 2003, McCain had joined 47 other senators to vote for an amendment stripping an energy bill of up to $16 billion in subsidies for the nuclear power industry. (The amendment lost by a two-vote margin.)</p>
<p>Wicke heard from staffers for several senators who had supported McCain and Lieberman’s original bill that these senators might oppose the measure if the new version contained nuclear subsidies. “It made me nervous,” she recalls. But McCain remained firm in his belief that the billions for nuclear power would draw in more Republicans.</p>
<p>In May 2005, McCain and Lieberman reintroduced their climate change bill—with the subsidies. McCain acknowledged that “friends” in the environmental movement were opposed to the nuclear provision. He spoke at length in the Senate to defend this part of the bill: “The idea that nuclear power should play no role in our energy mix is an unsustainable position…. I, for one, believe it can and should play an even greater role, not because I have some inordinate love affair with splitting the atom, but for the very simple reason that we must support sustainable, zero-emission alternatives such as nuclear if we are serious about addressing the problem of global warming…. I am a green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy.”</p>
<p>His friends were not persuaded. While the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Wildlife Federation continued to support McCain, the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and others mounted a fierce campaign against the new bill. On June 22, 2005, it came up for a vote and was defeated 60 to 38. Several Democratic senators who had backed McCain’s original legislation—Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)—defected, and McCain picked up no new Republicans. (Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both voted for it.) “The staff didn’t fully appreciate how much opposition there would be to the nuclear provision,” Wicke says, adding, “I could say it was a bit of miscalculation…. It did stymie this climate change legislation.” After collecting 44 supporters for the first bill, McCain had lost ground.</p>
<p>Sometime after the vote, the NRDC’s Wayland attended a meeting McCain held with representatives of environmental organizations. McCain was unapologetic about his decision to tie his climate change measure to nuclear power subsidies. “He said that environmentalists had lost power and influence because they did not support nuclear power,” Wayland recalls, “and that renewables would never be more than 1 or 2 percent of the active energy supplies. I tried to argue with him and got nowhere. It was hard to a get a word in edgewise.” After the meeting an upset Wayland, engaging in retail therapy, headed to a store and bought several pairs of shoes.</p>
<p>In January 2007, McCain and Lieberman again introduced their climate change bill, and the nuclear subsidies remained in the bill. (Public Citizen estimated the subsidies would run to at least $3.7 billion.) But in fall of 2007, the McCain-Lieberman bill was eclipsed by legislation introduced by Lieberman and Republican Senator John Warner. This bill called for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions—though not as great as many scientists advocated—and it contained no special subsidies for nuclear power. The Lieberman-Warner measure immediately became the major piece of pending climate change legislation in the Senate. McCain and his bill were essentially out of the picture. He was, at the time, busy campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.</p>
<p>“To his credit, he was a leader in the Republican Party on climate change,” Wayland says. But by pushing breaks for nuclear power, McCain damaged a cause he had been passionately advocating for, leaving this particular battlefield with self-inflicted wounds.</p>
<p>Photo of John McCain at a December rally by flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/2146440291/" type="external">marcn</a> used under a <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org" type="external">Creative Commons</a> license.</p>
<p /> | McCain’s Nuclear Waste | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/mccains-nuclear-waste/ | 2008-03-04 | 4 |
<p />
<p>At Poynter, any conversation about ethics owes much to Bob Steele.&#160;His reflective and reasoned voice helps or haunts journalists confronted and conflicted by ethical issues.&#160;&#160;</p>
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<p>This column, "Talk About Ethics," exists because Bob envisioned it as another vehicle to help journalists navigate the landmines and potholes encountered in providing excellent news coverage.&#160;&#160;&#160;Now <a href="" type="internal">Bob has embarked on a new journey at Poynter</a>, exploring and explaining journalism values.&#160; As his successor in writing this column, I intend to continue examining the ethical issues we face as journalists.</p>
<p>I also hope to show that practicing your craft without an ethical decision-making process is like reporting without an editing process and editing without a reporting process.</p>
<p>Before I begin doing so, however, I think it might be helpful to explain where I'm coming from.&#160;One way to do that is to let you know&#160;about a session I teach: "Ethics in the Time of Cholera."</p>
<p>Fans of journalist and novelist Gabriel García Márquez will recognize my homage to him in the title. Garcia Marquez won <a href="http://almaz.com/nobel/literature/1982a.html" type="external">the Nobel Prize for Literature</a>. "One Hundred Years of Solitude"&#160;and "Love in the Time of Cholera" stand out as only two of the many novels he&#160;has written&#160;while also continuing to commit journalism.</p>
<p>In his journalism, García Márquez gathers fascinating facts and paints vivid pictures. His fiction blends reality and fantasy so seamlessly it can be difficult to know which is which. He shows how the complexity of truth often escapes the facts.</p>
<p>By naming a session that plays off "Love in the Time of Cholera," I saw a way to convey the complexity of the world in which we must make decisions. Like his stories, ethical decision-making involves dealing with layers within layers. It requires a peeling process that can be as painful as it is revealing.</p>
<p>Separating truth from fiction, truth from truth, fiction from facts takes time and effort. But it can be done effectively prior to deadline, and on deadline, if we have a process that identifies what we believe, why we believe it, and how we want to implement it.</p>
<p>I believe our ethical mission involves doing the right thing for the right reason. The word "ethics" originates with the ancient Greeks. They saw it as referring to character, and what it took to have good or bad character. Therefore, the foundation of ethical decision-making involves good and bad options.</p>
<p>The ethical decision-making process helps us discard bad options and choose among the good ones. It helps us seek the best option from a number of alternatives for the particular ethical quandary we face.</p>
<p>Finally, we must not separate ethics from journalism. Excellent journalism requires ethical behavior. And ethical behavior takes into account all the people and perspectives affected by our decisions.</p>
<p>Engaging in ethical discussions is not a just a mental exercise. It also is a craft exercise. Acting ethically enhances our craft. In fact, it is as integral to our craft as reporting, writing, editing, designing, getting a photo, copyediting, and all the other skills we use.</p>
<p>They are all connected. Bob uses a diamond-shaped illustration when he teaches that shows Journalism tied to Ethical Decision-Making tied to Ethics tied to Reporting (or other journalistic skills). I fill in that diamond with the word CRAFT. I use large, uppercase letters, making sure each letter of the word touches the lines that form the diamond.</p>
<p>I do that to emphasize ethics as a craft. The ethical decision-making tool helps us report more thoroughly, write more clearly and accurately, edit more cogently, photograph with a sharper focus, and design with more details.</p>
<p>Let me give you example. One of <a href="" type="internal">the ethical questions&#160;we use</a> asks us to identify the stakeholders affected by our actions. By listing the stakeholders,&#160;we also serve a craft purpose: we explore&#160;who we might interview to&#160;tell the whole story.If we were to do a story about the high cost retirees pay for prescription drugs, for example, some of the stakeholders might include: retirees, U.S. drug companies, Canadian drug companies, websites selling drugs, insurance companies, local doctors, children of the retirees, the reporter, the news media, alternative medicine users, etc.</p>
<p>The list of those affected, and those we might want to interview, could go on and on. The more sources we find, the more complete a story we offer.&#160;And the more we learn about&#160;other stories we might tell.</p>
<p>In upcoming columns, I hope to show how such ethical thinking makes us better able to do what we want to do: engage in credible, aggressive, and compelling journalism.</p> | Ethics as Craft | false | https://poynter.org/news/ethics-craft | 2003-10-31 | 2 |
<p>Global stocks were roughly flat but oil prices hit a two-year high Monday as investors watched for developments in Saudi Arabia after a string of arrests as part of a corruption crackdown.</p>
<p>The Stoxx Europe 600 index was unchanged from its closing level Friday in midmorning European trading.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However, oil prices gained after the wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia of princes, businessmen and government ministers.</p>
<p>Shortly after European markets opened, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up by 0.4% at $55.86 a barrel, having touched a high of $56.19 in early European trading, the highest in over two years. Brent crude was up 0.5% at $62.37 a barrel.</p>
<p>Oil, gas and commodity-focused stocks were among the best performing in Europe, with Tullow Oil and BHP Billiton each up by over 2% and Anglo American up by 1.8%.</p>
<p>The oil-and-gas sector of the Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.3%. Banking stocks were among the worst performing in Europe, with the sector down 0.6%.</p>
<p>U.S. equity futures were roughly flat, with S&amp;P 500 futures down by less than 0.1% in early European trading, with investors also keeping a close eye on tax-reform plans.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will consider tax reform this week with the aim of passing the proposed bill before Christmas.</p>
<p>"We continue to believe that tax legislation has around a two-thirds chance of becoming law by early 2018," Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a research email. "The release of the House legislation is a positive step in that it moves the process forward."</p>
<p>U.S. tax changes aren't just expected to influence equity markets--some analysts believe bond markets could be shifted by any stimulus included in the final bill.</p>
<p>"In terms of the impact on equity markets we think it might put something like another 5% on earnings, but you'd expect interest rates to rise maybe a little bit faster," said Mike Bell, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.</p>
<p>"It is a risk for bond yields, because I just don't think it's priced in, " Mr. Bell said. "We're underweight bonds."</p>
<p>U.S. bond yields edged down slightly from closing levels Friday. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasurys dipped to 2.325% from a close of 2.334% last week.</p>
<p>In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by as much as 1.6% earlier in the session, before reversing losses to close down just 0.02%.</p>
<p>Some market participants credited political unrest in Saudi Arabia with sparking short-lived investor jitters in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>"Hong Kong didn't get a chance to respond to the situation over the weekend [and] everything risky in the overseas market affects Hong Kong more than in other Asian markets," said Hao Hong, head of research at BOCOM International.</p>
<p>Comments from China's central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan about rising risks to China's financial system reignited worries of a crackdown on leverage on the mainland, according to Ivan Ip, a stocks strategist at UOB Group.</p>
<p>Mr. Zhou wrote in an article posted Saturday on the website of the People's Bank of China that the risks of China's financial system were increasing. He described the risks as being "hidden, complex, sudden, contagious and hazardous."</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average reversed early gains, as traders returned after a three-day weekend. The index closed up 0.04%.</p>
<p>The yen pared early sharp declines against the U.S. dollar, when Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the central bank would be patient about easing. The dollar was last up 0.1% at Yen114.13 after earlier hitting an intraday high of Yen114.73.</p>
<p>The WSJ Dollar Index which measures the greenback against a basket of international currencies, was roughly flat.</p>
<p>Kenan Machado</p>
<p>contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Mike Bird at [email protected] and Ese Erheriene at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 06, 2017 06:30 ET (11:30 GMT)</p> | Oil Hits Two-Year High but Stocks Muted in Wake of Saudi Arrests -- 3rd Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/06/oil-hits-two-year-high-but-stocks-muted-in-wake-saudi-arrests-3rd-update0.html | 2017-11-06 | 0 |
<p>What looks like a young woman is roughed up and robbed and appears to be in the midst of being raped when two men show up and rescue her in Austria.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/742647/Austria-girl-attacked-teenagers-youths-subway-rescuers-chase-Europe?utm_source=traffic.outbrain&amp;utm_medium=traffic.outbrain&amp;utm_term=traffic.outbrain&amp;utm_content=traffic.outbrain&amp;utm_campaign=traffic.outbrain" type="external">The Express describes the video:</a></p>
<p>Outrageous footage has revealed the moment the girl was saved by two men after she was attacked by a group of youths in a subway station.&#160;</p>
<p>In the footage, the girl can be seen struggling with one particular male in the station before the situation quickly gets more serious.</p>
<p>The girl is thrown against a wall while another couple of youths surround her, as one boy picks up an object which appears to be a mobile phone off the floor before walking off.&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | VIDEO: Girl is robbed and nearly gang raped in Austrian street | true | http://therebel.media/video_girl_is_robbed_and_nearly_gang_raped_in_austrian_street | 2016-12-13 | 0 |
<p>NewsdayMargo Howard, who pens "Dear Prudence" and is Eppie (Ann Landers) Lederer's daughter, isn't thrilled to see Amy Dickinson identified as Ann Landers' successor. "I just wish they weren't making so much of the name because she's not the next Ann Landers, she's the newest advice columnist," says Howard. Dickinson seems to agree. "There will never be another Eppie; she was unique." &gt; <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/936790.asp" type="external">Dickinson tells Seth Mnookin</a> her first reaction when she found out she got the advice columnist job was to go straight to bed and stay there. "My second reaction was, 'I am the great and powerful Oz!'" (Newsweek) &gt; <a href="http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20030710/localnews/541237.html" type="external">Rachel Dickinson: My sister's cleverness will make her successful (IthJrn)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/fashion/02ANNE.html?ex=1057982400&amp;en=9e831cd8a2e47847&amp;ei=5070" type="external">Earlier: Dickinson's been criticized for her free-wheeling opinions (NYT)</a></p> | Lederer's daughter hates "next Landers" tag on Dickinson | false | https://poynter.org/news/lederers-daughter-hates-next-landers-tag-dickinson | 2003-07-10 | 2 |
<p>For 50 consecutive years, Dorothy Hall has made a mid-summer trek up the mountain to spend a week at Eagle Eyrie. She first came in 1959 to attend Training Union week. “My mother-in-law, Grandma Hall, came to cook for Mr. Burkett,” she recalls, “and I came along with her.”</p>
<p>Hall enjoyed the Training Union weeks she attended, but soon after Robert Carlton came to High Hills Baptist Church in Jarratt in 1960, he took a group from the church to missions' week and she was hooked. “I have the book from the first missions conference I attended way back then in the early 1960s,” she recalls.</p>
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<p>Photo by Jim White</p>
<p>Dorothy Hall, center, is surrounded by her family at Eagle Eyrie Conference Center for MC2. First row, l. to r. granddaughter Allie Cumbey and great grandson Zaire Carter. Seated, granddaughter Karabeth Poole, daughter Cathy Lewis, Hall, daughter Connie Grissom, grandson Seth Kindred. Back row, granddaughters Amy Cumbey and Jaime Poole.</p>
<p>The stories of the missionaries captivated her and caused the trip to Lynchburg to become an annual event. “I figured up once how many missionaries I met here, but it was so many I couldn't keep track,” says the missions' conference regular.</p>
<p>Hall is most pleased that her family continues the tradition of making the missions conference, now called MC2, a part of their summers. Accompanying Hall this year were two daughters, three granddaughters, three grandsons, four great-granddaughters and one great grandson.</p>
<p>“Because of this experience that we all share, all my children and grandchildren are in church,” she beams.</p>
<p>The missions experience may have begun with listening to missionary stories, but it soon became hands-on. Hall started knitting afghans and blankets and soon others joined her in her church and even at the Eagle Eyrie conference.</p>
<p>After Vicky Allen-Pearce, a fellow church member died of cancer in her mid-40s, Hall and the other ladies decided to dedicate their work in her memory. “It was Lois Grizzard's idea,” Hall says modestly of another High Hills church member.</p>
<p>“It's called ‘Hands of Love Ministry' and they make chemo-caps for children who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments,” Hall's granddaughter, Amy Cumbey, adds with obvious pride. Another granddaughter, Jaime Poole, is the youth minister at High Hills. She picks up the theme: “The ladies also make blankets for babies.”</p>
<p>Hall continues the thought “We make isolette blankets for little ones so tiny they can fit into the palm of your hand.”</p>
<p>For a time Hall was fearful that she would not be able to celebrate her 50th consecutive year at Eagle Eyrie. “My husband and I were married 49 years when he died,” she remembers. “So I was a little worried about whether I would make 50.”</p>
<p>“But she did!” injects Cumbey.</p> | High Hills woman completes 50th consecutive year at Eagle Eyrie | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/highhillswomancompletes50thconsecutiveyearateagleeyrie/ | 3 |
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<p>A dog named Napoleon sports a sweater as he is walked by his owner earlier this week in New York City, where frigid air that snapped decades-old records made venturing outside dangerous for pets, as well as people. Animal lovers throughout the Midwest, East and South scrambled to keep sensitive paws and wet noses warm. (Mark Lennihan/The Associated Press)</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES – Backyard rabbit Mr. Bun-Buns has been calling a bathroom home for nearly a week, police K-9s have been relieved of chase duty in deep snow, feral cats got sugar and straw from a lot of good Samaritans, and Ormsby, a skinny, toothless, blind and geriatric goat with a tendency to wander has been locked in a barn.</p>
<p />
<p>An antifreeze that’s safer for pets contains propylene glycol instead of ethylene glycol. While it may upset your pet’s stomach or cause mild nervous system reactions, it’s unlikely to cause the lethal kidney failure that products containing ethylene glycol cause.</p>
<p>The doorway should be high enough off the ground to prevent water from flowing in. It should also be fairly small to minimize heat loss in the cold.</p>
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<p>As a fierce freeze gripped much of the country, animal lovers were rushing to protect pets, livestock and police dogs from historically icy temperatures that have led to deaths, transit shutdowns and school closures. The blast of polar air breaking records in the Midwest, East and South sent shelters and pet owners scrambling to keep sensitive paws and wet noses warm.</p>
<p>Veterinarians say the smaller the animal, the higher the risk of freezing to death. In dogs and cats, shivering and lethargy are the first two signs of trouble.</p>
<p>“The smaller you are, the more body surface you have, and the quicker you will lose body heat,” said Dr. Douglas G. Aspros, immediate past president of the Illinois-based American Veterinary Medical Association.</p>
<p>Subzero wind chills have been widely registered and Aspros, who has offices in White Plains and Pound Ridge, N.Y., says they are a big factor because wind strips heat from pets faster.</p>
<p>If you need to warm a shivering animal, a quick and easy way is to heat a towel in the dryer and wrap it around them.</p>
<p>Many animals will be comfortable if they’re moving but get cold when they slow down, said Dr. Brian Collins of the small animal clinic at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y. “They may refuse to walk because their feet are so cold,” he said. “They might alternate picking up their feet because they don’t want to leave them down too long. I have seen little dogs just fall over. They will pick up one, two and three feet, and fall right over.”</p>
<p>The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s dogs are still on patrol with their handlers, but they aren’t being deployed for extended outdoor searches, Lt. Benny Diggs said.</p>
<p>All dogs are different, but a K-9 might be able to search for only 15 or 20 minutes in deep snow before showing signs of trauma to the legs, he said. Ice under snow can cut their feet and salt in wounds is painful. “We haven’t had anything like this in forever. You can’t even put chemicals down because they just freeze,” Diggs said.</p>
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<p>Cats are probably the most resourceful animals in the cold and feral cats are particularly hardy because they are so used to the outdoors, said Becky Robinson, president and founder of Alley Cat Allies in Baltimore. But in this kind of a freeze, a helping hand could save a lot of lives, she said.</p>
<p>She says Samaritans have been making cheap, outdoor shelters with plastic tubs or foam coolers set off the ground and lined with straw. Blankets gather moisture, she said, and will freeze, so they use straw. She recommends putting water in plastic, rather than metal, bowls with a pinch of sugar because it doesn’t freeze as quickly, she said. It still has to be refreshed often, though.</p>
<p>The vets warned drivers to check before starting cars because cats, domestic and feral, are drawn to warm engines and car hoods. An open clothes dryer is a warm spot that could lure an indoor cat, so keep the door shut.</p>
<p>Livestock will head for the barn when cold. At the 175-acre Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, all 640 horses, cows, sheep and goats were given shelter from the cold and snow, national shelter director Susie Coston said. That includes Ormsby, locked up for his own good.</p>
<p>Ormsby, and at least 25 of the calves, sheep and other old goats, are wearing coats specially made for them by a volunteer.</p>
<p>Chickens are susceptible to frostbite on their wattles and combs, Coston said, so those are covered with Vaseline.</p>
<p>At Dr. Caroline Flower’s office in Chester, Conn., every dog through the door has been wearing a coat this week. Receptionist-technician Cathy Troncoso said her dogs would be wearing them too, but they don’t make the outerwear big enough to fit her two 125-pound Pyrenees dogs.</p>
<p>The cold forced colleague Ashley Bogert to move her backyard rabbit, Mr. Bun-Buns, into her bathroom. “He loves it,” she said, but she’s looking forward to getting the room back to herself.</p>
<p /> | Furry friends fight a fierce freeze | false | https://abqjournal.com/333898/furry-friends-fight-a-fierce-freeze.html | 2 |
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<p>SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Less than a week before the Texas church massacre, the gunman who slaughtered more than two dozen people showed up at a festival dressed in black and acted so strangely that people kept a close eye on him, two longtime parishioners said Friday.</p>
<p>Devin Patrick Kelley “was completely distant and way out in thought,” recalled Judy Green. She and her husband said Kelley often exhibited troubling behavior.</p>
<p>At the fall festival held on Halloween night at the First Baptist Church, Kelley “didn’t even blink — he just stared,” she said.</p>
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<p>Rod Green, a former law enforcement officer in Montana, said when he saw Kelley arrive in all black, he examined him closely to make sure he was not carrying a gun. The Greens both have licenses to carry handguns, and they are friends with Kelley’s in-laws.</p>
<p>If Kelley had been carrying a weapon, Green said, he would have escorted him away because of all the children there. Judy Green said she positioned herself to keep an eye on Kelley at all times.</p>
<p>“There was something wrong with the picture,” she said. “I was thinking forward, and that was what was scaring me.”</p>
<p>At a Christmas dinner one year, Kelley had “bragged about being armed,” Rod Green said.</p>
<p>Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt has said the church pastor saw Kelley in the crowd at the festival but that the pastor did not witness any behavior that raised alarms.</p>
<p>Investigators have said Sunday’s shooting appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother-in-law, and that he had sent threatening messages to her. The mother-in-law sometimes attended services at the church but was not present on Sunday. Kelley died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the massacre.</p>
<p>The Greens run a food pantry that offered this stricken Texas community another chance to mourn Friday as the charity resumed its weekly operations five days after the massacre at the church next door.</p>
<p>People crowded inside the By His Grace pantry, tearfully hugging and filling bags with donated bakery goods, groceries and used clothing.</p>
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<p>The pantry’s director, Lula White, was among those killed. White was also the 71-year-old grandmother of the gunman’s wife.</p>
<p>As 68-year-old Brandy Johnson walked in, she flinched and she said she could “see Lu at the desk.” White “had a heart as big as Texas,” she said.</p>
<p>The Greens have operated the pantry for 11 years. She said she has slept little since Sunday, waking up screaming from nightmares. The couple, who were married at the church, were not at the service but later watched as worshippers were carried out in body bags.</p>
<p>“It is fresh in my mind. I see it all — just over and over and over,” Judy Green said.</p>
<p>Deana Cassel, who is 52 and a lung cancer patient, wiped away tears as she helped straighten piles of used clothing. She said volunteering at the pantry had given her a sense of purpose and a way to channel her grief about losing friends in the shooting.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of poverty in this area, but people don’t only come here for something to eat. These people make them think they have someone in their life,” she said, gesturing toward the Greens.</p>
<p>Law enforcement officials have reopened the intersection where the First Baptist Church stands, but black mesh material was tied to the chain-link fence surrounding it. With the bullet-ridden church door open, a tall wooden cross could be seen at the altar.</p>
<p>At annual Veterans Day observances Saturday, the church victims with military backgrounds will receive a full military salute on the grounds of the community hall, said Alice Garcia, president of the unincorporated town’s community association.</p>
<p>“Everyone in the community is doing what they can, but honestly everyone feels so helpless,” 20-year-old Karyssa Calbert of neighboring Floresville, Texas, said at the hall.</p>
<p>Before the church is demolished, it will serve as a temporary memorial, said Rod Green, who also serves as the grounds steward for the church.</p>
<p>The building will be scrubbed down and whitewashed, and chairs will be placed inside — one to commemorate each of the dead. Late Friday afternoon, people in dust suits could be seen scrubbing the walkway leading to the front door.</p>
<p>Services will never take place there again, Rod Green said, explaining that the church plans to build a new structure on property it owns elsewhere. Services will be held Sunday at a nearby baseball field.</p>
<p>Pastor Frank Pomeroy told leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this week that it would be too painful to continue using First Baptist Church as a place of worship.</p>
<p>Kelley shot and killed 25 people at the church. Authorities have put the official toll at 26, because one of the victims was pregnant.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, funerals have started. On Thursday, more than 500 people attended a private service at a San Antonio-area Air Force base for Scott and Karen Marshall, a husband and wife who both served in the military, said Randy Martin, spokesman for the 12th Flying Training Wing.</p>
<p>Eleven people remained hospitalized Friday with wounds from the shooting.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Writer Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external">http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv</a> .</p> | Parishioners: Gunman acted oddly week before church attack | false | https://abqjournal.com/1090729/residents-of-texas-town-feel-helpless-after-church-shooting.html | 2017-11-10 | 2 |
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<p>TOKYO — Asian shares were mixed Tuesday as uncertainty mounted over U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade and regulatory policies.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2 percent to 18,845.89. Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 added 0.7 percent to 5,651.20. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.1 percent to 2,063.10. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3 percent to 22,969.38, while the Shanghai Composite ticked up 0.1 percent to 3,139.81. Benchmarks rose in Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia, but fell in the Philippines.</p>
<p>SAMSUNG NEWS: Samsung Electronics gained 0.2 percent after reporting fourth-quarter profit more than doubled from a year earlier on strong memory-chip and smartphone sales, despite its costly Galaxy Note 7 recalls. The South Korean company has said tests found defects in two sets of batteries from two different manufacturers that made the devices prone to catching fire.</p>
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<p>TRADE WORRIES: Many Asian nations rely on exports to keep their economies going, so Trump’s latest moves on trade and regulations raised concerns over future access to the U.S. market. Trump signed a memorandum saying the U.S. will withdraw from the Pacific Rim trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He also said he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.</p>
<p>THE QUOTE: “The lack of any key U.S. economic data overnight had dealers focused exclusively on the Trump administration’s trade policy and the signing of the executive order to pull out of the TPP,” said Stephen Innes, senior trader at Oanda, of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.</p>
<p>WALL STREET: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 27.40 points, or 0.1 percent, to 19,799.85. The Standard &amp; Poor’s 500 index slid 6.11 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,265.20. The Nasdaq composite index lost 2.39 points, or 0.04 percent, to 5,552.94. The Russell 2000, which tracks smaller companies, gave up 4.01 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,347.84.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude added 22 cents to $52.97. It fell 47 cents to close at $52.75 per barrel in New York overnight. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 26 cents $55.49 per barrel in London.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: In currency markets, the dollar declined to 112.98 yen from 113.62 yen late Monday in Asia. The euro rose to $1.0752 from $1.0743.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Business Writer Alex Veiga contributed to this report.</p>
<p>Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama</p>
<p>Her work can be found at <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama" type="external">http://bigstory.ap.org/content/yuri-kageyama</a></p> | Asian stock indexes mixed as Trump uncertainties mount | false | https://abqjournal.com/933590/us-stock-indexes-edge-lower-in-early-trading-oil-slides.html | 2017-01-23 | 2 |
<p>California continues to witness a steady rise in the number of voters who choose not to affiliate with any political party. According to the most recent numbers released by the Secretary of State, 21.2% of California voters are now registered as having no party preference, a new high. The previous record was set in March of last year when 20.4% of all registered voters declined to state a party affiliation on their registration forms.</p>
<p>The percentage of Independent voters in the Golden State has more than doubled over the course of the last two decades. In 1995, just 10.5% of California’s voters declined to state a party affiliation. Over the same period, the percentage of registered Democrats declined by 4.1% to 43.6% of registered voters and the percentage of registered Republicans fell by 6.4% to 30.4% of the state’s electorate.&#160; The increase corresponds to a nationwide trend, through there are relatively fewer self-described Independents in California than in the country at large, where upwards of 40% refuse to identify with any party whatsoever.</p>
<p>San Francisco county has the highest concentration of <a href="" type="internal">Independent voters in California</a>, where they outnumber Republicans by a 3 to 1 margin. 30.5% of San Francisco’s voters have no party preference, while just 9.2% affiliate with the GOP. 55.7% of San Franciscans are Democrats.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the county with the lowest percentage of Independent voters is also among those with the highest percentage of registered Republicans. In Madera county, 47.9% of voters are registered with the Republican party while just 14.4% decline to state a party preference. 33.7% of the county’s voters affiliate with the Democratic party.</p>
<p>It is noteworthy that though the Secretary of State’s office recently reported that there are 30 California counties in which Republicans constitute a majority of registered voters, there are in fact no counties in California where more than half of all voters are registered with the GOP. Modoc county, where the GOP represents a 49.2% plurality, has the highest concentration of registered Republicans in California.</p>
<p>The American Independent Party and the Green Party are the two largest third party organizations recognized by the state. 2.5% of Californians are registered with the American Independent Party while Greens account for 0.7% of the state’s electorate. 0.6% of California voters are registered Libertarians and 0.4% affiliate with the Peace and Freedom Party.</p>
<p>In addition to the seven political parties officially recognized by the state (i.e. the American Independent Party, Americans Elect, the Democratic Party, the Green Party, the <a href="http://www.lp.org/" type="external">Libertarian Party</a>, the Peace and Freedom Party, the Republican Party), twenty-one other political bodies are currently seeking to qualify for the June 5 presidential primary election, demonstrating a significant level of independent third party political activity. Among them are the <a href="http://constitutionparty.com" type="external">Constitution Party</a>, the California Moderate Party, the Dharma Party, the Justice Party, the People’s Party, the Reform Party and the Whig Party. Of these, the Reform Party has the highest number of registered members with 20,722.</p>
<p>A large majority of Independents consistently tell pollsters that they desire alternatives to the Democrats and Republicans. They are out there. The only question is: when will Independents begin to support them?</p> | Independents on the rise in California | false | https://ivn.us/2012/02/06/independents-on-the-rise-in-california/ | 2012-02-06 | 2 |
<p>Photo: "Race to Nowhere" film</p>
<p />
<p>After Jane Marvin’s 13-year-old daughter Devon committed suicide in 2008, Marvin reviewed every email, chat, and phone call for missed signs of a troubled mind. A high-achieving, highly popular student, Devon had shown no symptoms of depression, Marvin reflects in the new documentary&#160; <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com/" type="external">Race to Nowhere</a>. Eventually Marvin&#160;uncovered just one clue:&#160;an unexpected “F” on a math test—the first one for Devon, a straight ‘A’ student.</p>
<p>It was this death that compelled ex-Wall Street lawyer (and mother of three)&#160; <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com/film-team" type="external">Vicki Abeles</a> to make Race to Nowhere.&#160;Abeles—who interviewed psychiatrists, child development experts, teachers, parents, and&#160;teens in affluent and low-income communities for the film—claims that a silent epidemic of stress-related diseases among American children is leading to increased rates of suicide, depression, and anxiety.&#160;While I think the film at times oversimplifies the connections between&#160;No Child Left Behind testing and increased mental disorders,&#160;Race to Nowhere&#160;is still a must-see for any parent who wants to understand the daily pressures facing kids in schools.</p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings" type="external">this site to find or host a film screening</a> in your area, or get school&#160; <a href="http://www.racetonowhere.com" type="external">survival tips</a>.</p>
<p /> | America’s “Race to Nowhere” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/no-child-left-behind-race-to-nowhere/ | 2011-02-23 | 4 |
<p>Everyone from Tim Russert to Time magazine seems to have decided that there’s absolutely no way Hillary Clinton can get the nomination. What happened? Sure, her chances of winning enough pledged delegates are nearly impossible, but wasn’t that true after Pennsylvania? Wasn’t it true before Pennsylvania?</p>
<p>What’s with the sudden collective reality check from the media?</p>
<p>Was losing North Carolina really that definitive? Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that Hillary Clinton had won that state by as much as she won Indiana. Barack Obama would still have more pledged delegates and more of the popular vote.</p>
<p>Of course she would have had a more compelling argument with the superdelegates, but let’s face facts: They never really wanted to take it away from a money-raising machine like Barack Obama, with his millions of new voters (and donors). These are Party people, after all.</p>
<p />
<p>They said Hillary needed to win North Carolina to change the game. She lost it, and now everyone is telling her she’s not allowed to play anymore.</p>
<p /> | Showing Hillary the Door | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/showing-hillary-the-door/ | 2008-05-08 | 4 |
<p>PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed attorney David Weinzweig to fill a vacancy on the Arizona Court Of Appeals.</p>
<p>Weinzweig will replace former Judge Margaret Downie on the court's Phoenix-based division, which hears cases from Apache, Coconino, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Yavapai and Yuma counties.</p>
<p>Weinzweig is a registered independent who is currently a partner in a Phoenix law firm. He previously worked for the Arizona Attorney General's Office and for a law firm before that.</p>
<p>Ducey chose Weinzweig as the appointee from among seven nominees recommended by a state commission that screened applicants for the opening.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed attorney David Weinzweig to fill a vacancy on the Arizona Court Of Appeals.</p>
<p>Weinzweig will replace former Judge Margaret Downie on the court's Phoenix-based division, which hears cases from Apache, Coconino, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Navajo, Yavapai and Yuma counties.</p>
<p>Weinzweig is a registered independent who is currently a partner in a Phoenix law firm. He previously worked for the Arizona Attorney General's Office and for a law firm before that.</p>
<p>Ducey chose Weinzweig as the appointee from among seven nominees recommended by a state commission that screened applicants for the opening.</p> | David Weinzweig appointed to fill Court of Appeals vacancy | false | https://apnews.com/amp/e147b360bbd943a5a93f58dc2ee174c0 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>While the "Northern Ireland model" is increasingly cited as applicable to other conflicts, perhaps especially in the Middle East, the truth about the ending of the Northern Ireland Troubles is misunderstood, not least because a myth has been established by Sinn Fein - "the polite fiction," as Henry McDonald puts it, "that the final outcome had been some sort of honourable draw."</p>
<p>View the full article <a href="" type="internal">here</a></p> | Gunsmoke and Mirrors: How Sinn Fein Dressed Up Defeat as Victory | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/democratiya_article/gunsmoke-and-mirrors-how-sinn-fein-dressed-up-defeat-as-victory | 4 |
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<p>I recently had the privilege of traveling with a group of divinity students from Wake Forest University to western North Carolina where we visited several sustainable, organic farms. We met and worked with people who are experimenting with innovative and progressive forms of agriculture which do not harm the greater local ecosystem and serves to reconnect humanity to the land. During our weekend visit, I learned of two emerging trends in food production which are really just the reclamation of ancient, natural growing practices. I believe these two techniques, permaculture and no-till farming, can serve as powerful images of what it looks like to be a local, organic church in the 21st century.</p>
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<p>Permaculture basically seeks to plant permanent food producing organisms inside ecosystems which naturally are able to sustain them and benefit from their existence. Really a straightforward idea, agrarians practicing permaculture first take an intentional period of time to view the geography of the intended farming site, learning the lay of the land and observing the plants that innately want to grow there. From these surveys, the farmer, for example, plants an apple orchard around other plants native to an area which have root, branch or leaf structures that will provide a needed boost of essential nutrients and elements to the the young orchard. Each year as the newly-planted area grows, the apple trees, along with the other nearby plants, are pruned and their clippings are used to mulch the space. As these parts decompose, they serve as a natural fertilizer and compost over the growing orchard. These trees therefore are planted into ecosystems in which they could be naturally and organically sustained while at the same time benefit the ecosystem as a whole.</p>
<p>On the other end of the spectrum—but with the same focus on creation care—is the idea of no-till farming. For traditional gardeners who must plant new tomatoes and cucumbers each year I learned that there is also an eco-friendly alternative to countless rounds with the rototiller and Miracle Grow. This came as a surprise, considering the fact that my grandmother had previously instilled in me that there was no other method. On the contrary, no-till farmers offer the prophetic reminder that the over-tilling and turning of the soil release important gases which contribute to the growth and health of the plant intended to flourish in that space. Furthermore, most rototillers simply turn over a very shallow layer of soil while at the same time pack down lower layers.&#160;</p>
<p>Healthy and productive plants need soft, deep and nutrient-rich soil in order to yield the desired crop. Many no-tillers therefore have developed a technique in which they plant a cover crop of, for example, rye. The rye is allowed to grow to about waist high before it is lightly rolled over to one side. Farmers then dig small, shallow holes into the same soil as the rye. The new food crop is sown into these holes and as the rye dries and decomposes, it also becomes a natural and organic fertilizer.&#160;</p>
<p>After learning of these two methods, it is any surprise that my mind immediately turned to the local church?&#160; When I think of what the church can be in the 21st century and how our previous history may also remain beneficial, I cannot think of any better images than those of permaculture and no-till farming. Many churches today feel the need to adopt the latest church growth strategies sent out from denominational headquarters or modeled by the nearest megachurch. While these can sometimes serve productive ends, they rarely take into account the history or locale of the church in which they are employed. The result is usually detrimental since the newly-adopted strategy does not function naturally in the setting. What is needed is something similar to permaculture. We must learn the lay of the land in our churches and discover the mutually beneficial partnerships available in our communities. From this point, we can plant new ministries which will adapt and grow naturally in the particular church setting.</p>
<p>Likewise, what good would it do if we violently tilled over our historical soil? Surely we would destroy the good and only pack down the bad elements of our past. We must allow our identity to grow out of our past while also allowing new holes where we may plant 21st century seeds. As the old naturally fades, it becomes the needed fertilizer for the new fruit which will organically emerge.</p>
<p>In addition to the connection and peace made with the land, these two forms of agriculture require patience. May we also exhibit the same patience required to become organic local congregations.</p>
<p>Alex Gallimore ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>) is associate pastor for youth at Piney Grove Baptist Church in Mount Airy, N.C.</p> | OPINION: Becoming an organic local church | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/opinionbecominganorganiclocalchurch/ | 3 |
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<p>Credit Suisse Group AG said it planned to raise 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.02 billion) of fresh capital and abandon plans for a partial sale of its Swiss unit as the banking giant reported a first-quarter profit that topped analysts' expectations.</p>
<p>The upbeat earnings come as a welcome reprieve for the Swiss banking giant, which has been beset by steep losses and uncertainties over its longer-term strategy as it scales back from volatile, but sometimes very profitable, investment banking and toward the more predictable business of managing money for wealthy clients.</p>
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<p>Credit Suisse on Wednesday posted net income of 596 million Swiss francs, compared with a year-earlier net loss of 302 million francs, on strong performance in its wealth-management and global-markets divisions. Analysts had forecast net income of 332 million francs. Revenue rose 19% to 5.5 billion francs, in line with expectations.</p>
<p>"We view these as impressive results," analysts at Citi wrote in a research note.</p>
<p>Shares in the bank rose more than 3% in morning trading.</p>
<p>Still, the bank faces challenges amid political uncertainties that it said "weighed somewhat on client volumes in the first few weeks of April."</p>
<p>"We are confident in our medium-term growth prospects. However, due to these uncertainties, we remain cautious in the short term," it said.</p>
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<p>In a move to bolster its finances, Credit Suisse said it would sell 4 billion francs of new shares, boosting its key core capital ratio to 13.4%. "I think this does take the capital issue off the table for Credit Suisse," Chief Financial Officer David Mathers said on a call with reporters. Shareholders will consider the proposal at a meeting on May 18.</p>
<p>Credit Suisse also said it was dropping a plan to spin off its Swiss banking unit. The bank will now retain full ownership of the subsidiary, which it had previously planned to partially float through an initial public offering in the second half of the year.</p>
<p>The Swiss unit posted adjusted pretax income of 483 million francs, the fifth consecutive quarter of pretax growth on an annual basis. The bank's international wealth-management unit reported 4% growth in net revenue compared with last year, while revenues in the credit and securitized-products division more than doubled on the year.</p>
<p>Credit Suisse endured a bumpy 2016 as it embarked on the shift from investment banking to wealth management. Last year ended with a $5.3 billion settlement to resolve a financial crisis-era mortgage backed securities case with the U.S.</p>
<p>The bank posted a 2.4 billion franc loss last year.</p>
<p>Credit Suisse had previously signaled that 2017 had gotten off to a strong start particularly in its investment banking and wealth-management units because of the rosier mood in financial markets following the U.S. presidential election.</p>
<p>Yet the bank faces some new uncertainties that have emerged since the start of the year. The bank's offices in Amsterdam, London and Paris were targeted last month by authorities in a tax investigation, though it remains unclear how serious an issue this is for Credit Suisse, which has repeatedly cited its "zero tolerance" approach to tax evasion.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam said in a call with analysts that the bank was "surprised" by the investigation, noting the "magnitude" of the effort the bank has made to ensure that its clients are compliant with tax authorities.</p>
<p>He said there are "absolutely" a few situations where clients may have misled the bank or provided incorrect documentation and that Credit Suisse is cooperating with national authorities.</p>
<p>"This is not an area of tension," he said.</p>
<p>Write to Brian Blackstone at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 26, 2017 04:27 ET (08:27 GMT)</p> | Credit Suisse Plans $4 Billion Share-Capital Increase -- 4th Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/26/credit-suisse-plans-4-billion-share-capital-increase-4th-update.html | 2017-04-26 | 0 |
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<p>Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari unveiled a plan on Wednesday to prevent future government bailouts by forcing the largest U.S. banks to hold so much capital that they would probably decide to break themselves up.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kashkari's plan would also penalize large asset managers, with the idea that so-called "shadow banks" can create systemic risks similar to that of big banks.</p>
<p>"We expect that institutions whose size doesn't meaningfully benefit their customers will be forced to break themselves up," the Minneapolis Fed said in a summary of its plan.</p>
<p>The plan, which would double the amount of loss-absorbing equity capital for large U.S. banks and impose a new tax on hedge funds and other asset managers, is sure to face fierce opposition from Wall Street.</p>
<p>It may also be a tough sell for policymakers who have already imposed rules intended to eliminate the notion that some banks are "too big to fail," or TBTF.</p>
<p>However, its prospects may be better under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump and the new Congress.</p>
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<p>Trump has been critical of Wall Street, and indicated he would support dismantling 2010 financial crisis legislation known as Dodd-Frank, but it is not clear whether he would support Kashkari's approach.</p>
<p>However, lawmakers such as Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, who runs the House Financial Services Committee, have also argued for ratcheting up capital requirements to a level that would prompt big banks to split apart. Senate Banking Committee members Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican, have also introduced legislation seeking to raise capital requirements.</p>
<p>"I believe the biggest banks are still TBTF and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy," Kashkari said in planned remarks he was to deliver at the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Kashkari has made "too big to fail" his signature issue since being appointed head of the Minneapolis Fed in January. He has held symposiums on the topic to get views from policymakers, academics and industry leaders about the best way to prevent future bailouts.</p>
<p>A former Goldman Sachs banker who administered the U.S. Treasury Department's bailout program during the financial crisis that erupted in 2008, Kashkari has positioned himself as a reformed Wall Street banker who knows best how to fix the problem. He also ran for governor in California in 2014, but has declined to comment on future political ambitions.</p>
<p>Kashkari's initial comments about breaking up big banks earlier this year drew praise from then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont.</p>
<p>Dodd-Frank advocates have argued that it will prevent future bank bailouts. But the Minneapolis Fed proposal argues there is still a 67 percent chance of one over the next 100 years. Kashkari's plan would reduce the likelihood of a future financial crisis over the next 100 years to roughly 9 percent, according to the proposal.</p>
<p>The increased equity requirement for banks would replace an existing requirement that allows banks to use equity and long-term debt.</p>
<p>The plan would also require the Treasury Secretary to certify that the banks subject to the rule are not "systemically important." Otherwise, they would face even tougher capital requirements.</p>
<p>Banks subject to the rule will have $250 billion in assets, a group that would include Bank of America Corp , JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co , Wells Fargo &amp; CO and Citigroup , among others.</p>
<p>A group of so-called "shadow banks," with more than $50 billion in assets, like Blackrock Inc would face a tax of at least 1.2 percent on their debt. If the Treasury indicates any of those firms are systemically important, the tax would rise to 2.2 percent.</p>
<p>"The tax would effectively make the cost of funds roughly equivalent between large banks and nonbanks," according to the plan, which was released Wednesday.</p>
<p>Banks with less than $10 billion in assets would see looser regulations, since they do not pose a threat to the U.S. economy, Kashkari said. Insurers would also escape the rule, because their funding model is different.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Dan Freed in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Diane Craft)</p> | Fed's Kashkari Unveils Plan to Tackle 'Too Big to Fail' Banks | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/11/16/feds-kashkari-unveils-plan-to-tackle-too-big-to-fail-banks.html | 2016-11-16 | 0 |
<p>(Reuters) – The outcome of the OPEC meeting in Vienna later this week is uncertain given current crude prices and a lack of consensus on an output cut extension deal, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) said on Monday.</p>
<p>“The absence of such a consensus is due to the uncertainty on the progress of the oil market rebalancing as well as prices trading at $63 per barrel,” the bank said in a research note.</p>
<p>“The push for a nine month extension, four months before the cuts end and given an accelerating rebalancing further stands in the face of prior comments that the cuts should remain data dependent to assess their effectiveness.”</p>
<p>U.S. oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday, easing from two-year highs on prospects of higher supply from a planned restart of the Keystone crude pipeline and uncertainty about Russia’s resolve to join in extending output cuts ahead of this week’s Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting.</p>
<p>On Friday, Russia said it was ready to support extending an output cut deal. Still, Russia has not given a timeline, and on Monday there were signs Russia may find it hard to comply.</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs said despite a less clear outcome, it viewed risks to oil prices as skewed to the downside this week as current prices, timespreads and positioning already reflect the high probability of a nine-month extension.</p>
<p>“We continue to expect a gradual ramp up in OPEC and Russian production from April onward,” Goldman said, adding “as a result, the announcement of an only six month extension would still initially appear bullish relative to our expectation.”</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Goldman calls outcome of upcoming OPEC meeting uncertain | false | https://newsline.com/goldman-calls-outcome-of-upcoming-opec-meeting-uncertain/ | 2017-11-27 | 1 |
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<p>Senior Pastor: Walnut Hills Baptist Church, a moderate Baptist church of 550 active members in the heart of historic Williamsburg, is seeking a Senior Pastor. Send written résumés to Walnut Hills Baptist Church, Attention: Pastor Search Committee, 1014 Jamestown Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185. Deadline for the submission of résumés is January 31, 2006.</p>
<p>Dealer Representative: Dealer representative needed in selected areas to handle product sales to church &amp; community groups. Music ministry background helpful. Excellent earning potential with flexible hours. Send résumé by email to ldepace@ murphyrobes.com or fax to 727-526-3528.</p>
<p>MUSIC DIRECTOR: Experienced Music Director position available in Boutetourt County. Duties include Wednesday evening rehearsals and Sunday morning worship service. The direction of congregational hymns, choir anthems and hand bells is needed. Please submit résumé to Mill Creek Baptist Church, 11475 Lee Hwy., Fincastle, VA 24090.</p>
<p>Part-time Worship Team Leader: Northstar Church. A new and growing congregation in the university community of Blacksburg, seeks a gifted and passionate leader for its music program. The Worship Team Leader will work with a full band and a group of talented vocalists to continue building a great contemporary music program. Northstar is affiliated with Virginia Baptists and the SBC. Apply by résumé to Northstar Worship Team, P.O. Box 10145, Blacksburg, VA 24062. Email: [email protected]</p>
<p>Music Minister: Mentow Baptist Church – Part-time staff position. Send résumé to Mentow Baptist Church, 3282 Mentow Drive, Huddleston, VA 24104. Phone 540-297-4051</p>
<p>MINISTER OF MUSIC: Enthusiastic Christian leader who enjoys both sacred and secular music as well as choruses. Someone who loves people and is eager to challenge children through adults in graded choirs, bell chimes and tone chimes. Must be willing to support church plans, programs and leadership. Send résumé to Memorial Baptist Church, 317 Lee Street, Hampton, VA 23669 or fax 757-723-5166. Attention: Personnel Committee, Elaine Schade, Chairman</p>
<p>Full-time Minister to Youth: Snyder Memorial Baptist Church is seeking a full-time Minister to Youth. The position requires at least five years of experience in student ministry and a seminary/ divinity school degree. Snyder Memorial, a CBF/SBC church, is located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Please send résumé to Youth Search, SMBC, 701 Westmont Drive, Fayetteville, NC 28305 or email résumés to [email protected]. Check out www.snydermbc.com for more information about the church.</p>
<p>ASSOCIATE PASTOR FOR STUDENT MINISTRIES: Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., is seeking an Associate Pastor for Student Ministries. This individual must be passionate about Jesus and have a strong calling to youth ministry. This person will plan, lead, coordinate and oversee all facets of student ministries at Bon Air Baptist Church, to promote fun, fellowship, spiritual development, personal growth and ministry involvement with our youth in grades 6 through 12. Qualifications for this position are as follows: • College degree • Master of divinity or equivalent is preferred • At least 5 years experience as a Youth Pastor in a multi-staff church • Strong organizational skills • Excellent relational skills with youth • Able to work well with other members of a large church staff Bon Air Baptist Church is a growing 3,000-plus member church located in beautiful central Virginia. Send résumés to Bon Air Baptist Church, Student Minister Search Committee, 2531 Buford Road, Richmond, VA 23235. www.bonairbaptist.org</p>
<p>Part-time Youth Pastor: Massaponax Baptist Church is seeking a part-time youth pastor willing to develop a youth ministry and fellowship that leads our young people in grades 6 through 12 in a relationship with Christ. For more information, please contact Christine Meadows at 540-220-5804. Please send résumé to Massaponax Baptist Church, Attn: Youth Pastor Selection Committee, 5101 Massaponax Church Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 or [email protected]</p>
<p>FULL-TIME YOUTH MINISTER: First Baptist Church, Newport News, is seeking a full-time, God-led Youth Minister to serve a 122-year-old church with a dynamic youth program. FBC is the site of the Hampton Roads location for the John Leland Center for Theological Studies. This is a great opportunity to learn and serve! More information about our church is available on our church website: http://www.fbcnn.org. Résumés will be accepted until Nov. 23, 2005, and can be mailed to First Baptist Church Personnel Ministry, Attn: Mrs. Tracy Houston, 12716 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, VA 23606.Résumés will be accepted via email at: [email protected], Subject: Youth Minister Position</p> | Classified Ads for November 17, 2005 | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/classifiedadsfornovember172005/ | 3 |
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<p>Federal police seized Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, in a raid before dawn in Iztapalapa, a working-class neighborhood of the capital. It was a far fall from their reign of wealth and power as the mayor and first lady of Iguala, a town in southern Guerrero state where the students from a teachers’ college went missing Sept. 26, allegedly at the hands of police and a drug cartel.</p>
<p>Maria de los Angeles Pineda and Jose Luis Abarca meet with state government officials in Chilpancingo, Mexico, on May 8, 2014. Federal police detained them early Tuesday, Nov. 4. (Alejandrino Gonzalez/The Associated Press)</p>
<p>Even as they were hauled off to the Attorney General’s organized crime unit to give their statements, the capture did nothing to answer the biggest mystery: Where are the students? Their disappearance, and the failure to make progress in the case, has ignited protests across the country and broadsided President Enrique Pena Nieto’s efforts to paint violence in Mexico as a thing of the past.</p>
<p>“News like this just makes you angrier,” said Mario Cesar Gonzalez, whose son, Cesar Manuel Gonzalez, is among the missing students. “I wish they would put the same intelligence services and effort into finding the students. The ineptitude is staggering.”</p>
<p>Authorities have uncovered mass graves and the remains of 38 people, but none has been identified as the missing students. Besides Tuesday’s arrests, at least 56 other people have been taken into custody, and the Iguala police chief is also being sought.</p>
<p>Some hoped the couple’s detention would provide new leads.</p>
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<p>No shots were fired in Tuesday’s raid on three houses, including the one in which the couple was hiding, according to a federal official.</p>
<p>One of the houses was a run-down stucco structure with cracked and stained walls and men’s jeans hanging out to dry.</p>
<p>Before they fled last month, the couple ran Iguala like a fiefdom in cooperation with the local drug cartel, Guerreros Unidos. Abarca received up to $220,000 every few weeks as bribe money and to pay off his corrupt police force, according to Attorney General Jose Murillo Karam.</p>
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<p /> | Mexican mayor, wife held in attack | false | https://abqjournal.com/491380/mexican-mayor-wife-held-in-attack.html | 2 |
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<p>Former Obama Green Jobs Czar Van Jones who resigned after it was revealed that he signed a petition that called for an investigation into whether the Bush administration deliberately allowed the Sept. 11 attacks to happen gave a lengthy interview at the leftwing Netroots Nation in Las Vegas Saturday.</p>
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<p>In the first segment Jones praised former USDA official Shirley Sherrod by comparing her to civil rights hero Rosa Parks and Sen. John Kerry for his work on climate change.</p>
<p>Here are the other segments.</p>
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<p /> | Van Jones: ‘Sherrod Is Like Rosa Parks’ | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/van-jones-sherrod-is-like-rosa-parks/ | 2010-07-25 | 0 |
<p>It's no secret the mainstream media is just one giant loudspeaker for the Left, but getting them to admit it is another story.</p>
<p>In the video (below), CNN anchor Don Lemon, himself an outspoken liberal, is asked whether he believes there is a liberal bias in the media, to which he scoffs, "Nooo, why, no." Then begins the clips of CNN segments completely throwing up over how much they love, are inspired, and in awe of ol' Crooked Hillary, who in their eyes has never had bad performance in front of a camera and has never ever committed any of the countless crimes she's 100 percent responsible for.</p>
<p>Graciously, the uploader only included a little over a minute of clips, because with the amount of biased footage there is from CNN alone, this video could've been a Lord of the Rings-sized epic.</p>
<p>In the video, CNN guests and commentators spew some Leftist rhetoric classics such as:</p>
<p>"[Trump's] speaking to part of the American public that for the last seven years... talk about taking the White House back.... They want the White House, capital W H I T E again."</p>
<p>"Hillary Clinton is an incredibly impressive public figure in my opinion."</p>
<p>"Basically tonight Hillary Clinton was Beyonce. She was flawless."</p>
<p>"[The email scandal is] not even a scandal. Scandal is the Republican's word for it. So far no one has determined there is any scandal there."</p>
<p>The clip ends with anchor Chris Cuomo, brother of Democratic Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, telling the American people to cease looking into Hillary's scandals on their own.</p>
<p>"It's illegal to posses these stolen documents," he says. "It's different for the media, so everything you're learning about this you're learning from us."</p>
<p>WikiLeaks responded with:</p>
<p>CNN falsely states that it unlawful for the public--but not for CNN--to search WikiLeaks <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PodestaEmails?src=hash" type="external">#PodestaEmails</a> <a href="https://t.co/sZMoM9iT2i" type="external">pic.twitter.com/sZMoM9iT2i</a></p>
<p>Cuomo then doubled-down on his statement via Twitter:</p>
<p>Be clear: not telling anyone not to read wiki. Was making point: hacking illegal, so TECHNICALLY, if you download stolen info that's wrong</p>
<p>hacking is a felony. POSSESSING wiki stolen info could be construed as a crime. Media gets an exception. viewing by you also ok.</p>
<p>Exit chant from Trump supporters who sum it up well:</p>
<p>Yes, they do truly suck.</p> | CNN (Clinton News Network) Claims They're Not Biased. Video Proves Otherwise. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10034/cnn-clinton-news-network-claims-theyre-not-biased-chase-stephens | 2016-10-18 | 0 |
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<p>Officials from the village of Corrales and the city of Rio Rancho will hold an opening ceremony at 1 p.m. on Aug. 2.</p>
<p>The project, begun nearly 10 years ago, was envisioned to open up an undeveloped section of Corrales and provide a link between the village and its larger urban neighbor, Corrales Mayor Phil Gasteyer said.</p>
<p>“It provides a way for Corrales residents to get to shops and services in Rio Rancho and the UNM campus, and hospital,” Gasteyer said. “It also gives us another way out of town in an emergency.”</p>
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<p>The access point on the east side of the intersection of Northern and N.M. 528 connects to Don Julio Road, which winds through a residential neighborhood in northwest Corrales and leads to Corrales Road, the main village north-south thoroughfare.</p>
<p>Work began on the roughly $2.5 million project around 2004. It included extending Don Julio Road and building a fire substation on Paseo Tomas Montoya, and bridging two channels on the Las Montoyas drainage watershed, Gasteyer said.</p>
<p>The village planned to finance the work through impact fees collected from developers and Legislative capital outlay funds. However, the economic downturn in 2008 stalled development investment and in 2009 former Gov. Bill Richardson pulled back the unspent capital outlay funds to shore up the state’s finances.</p>
<p>In 2011, the village borrowed $2 million from New Mexico Finance Authority to complete the work.</p>
<p>The project also depended on cooperation from Rio Rancho. The City Council in 2005 rejected a cooperation agreement primarily over concerns that Rio Rancho would have to pay for part of the project, according to then-Councilor Mike Williams.</p>
<p>In 2006, Corrales and Rio Rancho approved a memorandum of understanding, and in 2011 the City Council approved a minor change to the agreement and work eventually started on the intersection.</p>
<p>Corrales is currently paying for the loan but Gasteyer believes the project completion will spur development, enabling the village to collect impact fees to cover payments.</p>
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<p /> | New RR-Corrales connection | false | https://abqjournal.com/223557/new-rrcorrales-connection.html | 2013-07-20 | 2 |
<p>McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD) said on Thursday it is replacing Jan Fields, president of its U.S. business.</p>
<p>The move comes a week after the world's largest hamburger chain reported its first monthly decline in global restaurant sales in nine years.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Fields, 57, will be succeeded by Jeff Stratton, currently the company's global chief restaurant officer.</p>
<p>Company spokeswoman Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem said the move was "a business decision by senior management."</p>
<p>"We feel that now was the right time to make a change in leadership for the U.S. business," Shekhem said. She said she did not know what Fields's future plans were.</p>
<p>McDonald's replaced its chief executive officer in July.</p>
<p>Fields has been with McDonald's for more than 35 years.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | McDonald's Replacing U.S. Chief | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/11/15/mcdonald-replacing-us-chief.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>The Bank of England on Thursday unexpectedly left unchanged its key interest rate at a record low of 0.5%. It also made no changes to its 375-billion-pound ($495 billion) asset-purchase program. Markets had overwhelmingly priced in chances of a rate cut, which would've been the first since March 2009. The decision marked the first after the June 23 referendum in the U.K. that set the country on course to exit the European Union. The rate-setting policy makers voted 8-1 to leave policy unchanged. "In the absence of a further worsening in the trade-off between supporting growth and returning inflation to target on a sustainable basis, most members of the Committee expect monetary policy to be loosened in August," the BOE said in a statement. The pound jumped to $1.3424 from $1.3221 before the BOE's policy decision was announced.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Bank Of England Surprises By Leaving Key Rate Unchanged At 0.5% | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/14/bank-england-surprises-by-leaving-key-rate-unchanged-at-05.html | 2016-07-14 | 0 |
<p>When you hold a global market position like&#160;The Coca-Cola Company&#160;(NYSE: KO), with products in over 200 countries, it's imperative to learn to think small if you want to remain competitive.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/22/coca-cola-outlines-new-priorities.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=1a247756-cf3b-11e7-a61c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">first article in this series Opens a New Window.</a>, discussing the company's investor day conference on Nov. 16, we reviewed CEO James Quincey's directive that the company accelerate its brand development by favoring small and frequent experimentation over grand, big-bet product launches.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>During the conference, executives informed investors that to this end, Coca-Cola plans to export the venturing and emerging brands (VEB) model to its various geographic regions. Developed in North America, VEB acts as a venture-capitalist investor, marketing partner, and advisor to promising brands in which it often takes an initial minority interest.</p>
<p>Bolt-on acquisitions of more mature companies also form part of the plan. CFO Kathy Waller described how the purchase of AdeS, a Latin American-based producer of plant beverages, provided a rich opportunity for Coca-Cola. The company spent time after the acquisition, which closed in March of this year, studying AdeS's business and marketing approach, while also learning about the supply chain for a plant-based beverage business. Now it's making use of that learning to introduce AdeS into Europe, a process executives refer to as "lift and shift."</p>
<p>Sounding a note of caution, Coca-Cola's new chief growth officer, Francsisco Crespo, warned that where product iteration is more frequent, the risk of not achieving any growth at all often spikes. Thus, Coca-Cola vows to be more disciplined and structured in its approach to innovation, and it's introduced a&#160;narrative-based framework that can be used to evaluate every brand, from test-market proposition to iconic bellwether. Crespo provided the following image that introduces the concept:</p>
<p>This framework immediately identifies where a beverage is in its life cycle and lends itself to creating a narrative around the product's current status and aspirations. Using this storytelling approach should prove effective in helping the company succeed in its quest to shore up its legacy, market-dominating brands with newer, emerging drinks.</p>
<p>The evolution from explorer, to challenger, to leader is not just a tool for Coca-Cola's development and marketing teams. It also creates a vocabulary of sorts that can help investors understand where the company is investing its research, supply-chain, and marketing dollars, and what the potential for certain up-and-coming labels might be.</p>
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<p>For example, the Honest Tea brand has progressed from a disruptive explorer in the U.S. to a highly segmented challenger that's being rolled out across Europe. It's on its way to being a leader brand, which, although Coca-Cola's team didn't explicitly state, probably means it has the potential to join the company's 21 "billion-dollar brands."</p>
<p>Creating a shorthand narrative for each incipient label will also help Coca-Cola more quickly kill off its "zombie" brands -- that is, explorer beverages that can't quite scale to the next level of challenger. As you can see from the graphic, there's a binary decision path that must be taken during the explorer phase: scale, or kill.</p>
<p>To fulfill Quincey's goal of having the organization act like a smaller, more nimble company, it's imperative for Coca-Cola to develop the operational discipline of feeding more resources to promising new beverages, while mercilessly shutting down those that have slim chances of making it to challenger status.</p>
<p>We'll dwell on discipline of a different sort in the final article in this series: the <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/22/coca-cola-tweaks-its-financial-strategy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=1a247756-cf3b-11e7-a61c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">financial discipline Coca-Cola is exerting Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;to achieve its strategic priorities through the year 2020.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Coca-ColaWhen 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=8950d4ff-56cd-4f00-a81e-19e738877238&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=1a247756-cf3b-11e7-a61c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Coca-Cola 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 November 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFfinosus/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=1a247756-cf3b-11e7-a61c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Asit Sharma Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=1a247756-cf3b-11e7-a61c-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Narrative Structure Coca-Cola Is Using to Dominate Beverage Markets | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/23/narrative-structure-coca-cola-is-using-to-dominate-beverage-markets.html | 2017-11-23 | 0 |
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<p>For all the pop romance in Latin America associated with Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, few Latinos prefer to immigrate to such communist utopias or to socialist spins-offs like Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador or Peru.</p>
<p>Instead, hundreds of thousands of poor people continue to risk danger to enter democratic, free-market America, which they have often been taught back home is the source of their misery. They either believe that America’s supposedly inadequate social safety net is far better than the one back home, or that its purportedly cruel free market gives them more opportunities than anywhere in Latin America – or both.</p>
<p>Mexico strictly enforces some of the harshest immigration laws in the world that either summarily deport or jail most who dare to cross Mexican borders illegally, much less attempt to work inside Mexico or become politically active. If America were to emulate Mexico’s immigration policies, millions of Mexican nationals living in the U.S. immediately would be sent home.</p>
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<p>How, then, are tens of thousands of Central American children crossing with impunity hundreds of miles of Mexican territory, often sitting atop Mexican trains? Does Mexico believe that the massive influxes will serve to render U.S. immigration law meaningless, and thereby completely shred an already porous border? Is Mexico simply ensuring that the surge of poorer Central Americans doesn’t dare stop in Mexico on its way north?</p>
<p>The media talks of a moral crisis on the border. It is certainly that, but not entirely in the way we are told. What sort of callous parents simply send their children as pawns northward without escort, in selfish hopes of soon winning for themselves either remittances or eventual passage to the U.S? What sort of government allows its vulnerable youth to pack up and leave, without taking any responsibility for such mass flight?</p>
<p>Here in the U.S., how can our government simply choose not to enforce existing laws? In reaction, could U.S. citizens emulate Washington’s ethics and decide not to pay their taxes, or to disregard traffic laws, or to build homes without permits? Who in the pen-and-phone era of Obama gets to decide which law to follow and which to ignore?</p>
<p>Who are the bigots – the rude and unruly protestors who scream and swarm drop-off points and angrily block immigration authority buses to prevent the release of children into their communities, or the shrill counter-protestors who chant back “Viva La Raza” (“Long Live The Race”)? For that matter, how does the racialist term “La Raza” survive as an acceptable title of a national lobby group in this politically correct age of anger at the Washington Redskins football brand?</p>
<p>How can U.S. immigration authorities simply send immigrant kids all over the United States and drop them into communities without guarantees of waiting sponsors or family?</p>
<p>Liberal elites talk down to the cash-strapped middle class about their illiberal anger over the current immigration crisis. But most sermonizers are hypocritical. Take Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House. She lectures about the need for near-instant amnesty for thousands streaming across the border. But Pelosi is a multimillionaire, and thus rich enough not to worry about the increased costs and higher taxes needed to offer instant social services to the new arrivals.</p>
<p>Likewise, the CEOs of Silicon Valley and Wall Street who want cheap labor from south of the border assume that their own offspring’s private academies will not be affected by thousands of undocumented immigrants, that their own neighborhoods will remain non-integrated, and that their own medical services and specialists’ waiting rooms will not be made available to the poor arrivals.</p>
<p>Have immigration-reform advocates such as Mark Zuckerberg or Michael Bloomberg offered one of their mansions as temporary shelter for needy Central American immigrants? Couldn’t Yale or Stanford welcome homeless immigrants into their under-occupied summertime dorms? Why aren’t elite academies such as Sidwell Friends or the Menlo School offering their gymnasia as refuge for tens of thousands of school-age Central Americans?</p>
<p>What a strange, selfish and callous alliance of rich corporate grandees, cynical left-wing politicians and ethnic chauvinists who have conspired to erode U.S. law for their own narrow interests, all the while smearing those who object as xenophobes, racists and nativists.</p>
<p>How did such immoral special interests hijack U.S. immigration law and arbitrarily decide for 300 million Americans who earns entry into America, under what conditions, and from where?</p>
<p>Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.</p>
<p /> | Border crisis exposes hypocrites | false | https://abqjournal.com/427513/border-crisis-exposes-hypocrites.html | 2 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — Logically, what happens in Cyprus should stay in Cyprus. With a population of just over 1 million and an economy that’s a mere 0.2 percent of the 17-nation eurozone, the country seems too small to matter on the world stage.</p>
<p>Yet, that’s where it is this week — and with good reason: A proposed rescue package for Cyprus’ ailing economy would set a powerful precedent by nullifying government guarantees of bank deposits up to 100,000 euros (about $130,000 dollars). The rescue would impose a one-time “tax” of 6.75 percent on deposits under the threshold. Deposits above the ceiling, which aren’t guaranteed, would suffer a 9.9 percent tax.</p>
<p>“Until this (past) weekend, it was assumed that deposits were safe,” says Nicolas Veron of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “This is a watershed event. We are entering into a new world where deposits are no longer safe.”</p>
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<p>What Veron and others fear is that, in a future financial crisis, retail depositors — worried that some of their supposedly guaranteed accounts would be confiscated — will stage bank runs, making the crisis worse.</p>
<p>In Cyprus, the government declared a “bank holiday,” shutting banks to prevent massive withdrawals. The Parliament then overwhelmingly rejected the original agreement taxing the first 100,000 euros of deposits, but a revised plan — reportedly exempting the first 20,000 euros from the tax — may stand a better chance of passage.</p>
<p>The fact that deposits remain vulnerable still threatens dangerous side effects: In a new crisis, beleaguered Italy and Spain — the eurozone’s third and fourth largest economies — could face depositor panics.</p>
<p>“A depositor in a weak country with a troubled banking system,” writes Douglas Elliott of the Brookings Institution, “would have to seriously consider moving their funds to a stronger country, which is easy to do within the eurozone, or out of bank deposits altogether (into bonds, stocks or other financial instruments), which is even easier.”</p>
<p>The deposit tax was a concession by Cyprus to receive the bailout. Rather than abridging the deposit guarantee, Europe’s leaders — working with the International Monetary Fund — could have provided a bigger bailout. The present plan envisions a direct bailout of 10 billion euros, supplemented by about 5.8 billion euros raised from the deposit tax.</p>
<p>The European leaders and the IMF could have lent the full amount directly. Considering that bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have cost hundreds of billions of euros, the extra funds were relatively small.</p>
<p>By this theory, it wasn’t the amount — it was appearances.</p>
<p>In the last two decades, Cyprus has become a major offshore financial center, catering heavily to Russian and Ukrainian business tycoons and companies. In 2011, Cypriot and foreign banks located on the island had assets estimated at eight times the size of the country’s economy (gross domestic product), reports the Institute of International Finance, an industry research group.</p>
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<p>In this telling, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing an election this fall, felt that politically she couldn’t be seen as protecting Russian fat cats. Taxing deposits forces the Russians and other foreign depositors to bear some costs. Merkel “had to assure (voters) that German taxpayer money would not be effectively used to bail out the Russian oligarchs,” writes Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute.</p>
<p>One dissent comes from Jacob Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute. If Europe and the IMF had lent the full amount, Cyprus would have been saddled with an unsustainable debt, he says. The loan would represent about 100 percent of GDP, atop existing debt of 84 percent of GDP. Some funds had to be raised locally, he argues.</p>
<p>Whatever the truth, Cyprus’ banking system needs rescuing. It had invested heavily in Greek government bonds and loans to Greek companies. The bonds were written down, and loan losses mounted. Banks’ capital was depleted.</p>
<p>Cyprus’ economy will get worse before it gets better, says Brookings’ Elliott. It’s already in recession, with 14.7 percent unemployment in January. Banks, a mainstay of the economy, will shrink. Consumers and businesses, having lost sizable deposits, will retrench.</p>
<p>But the real question is not about Cyprus. It’s whether what started in Cyprus stays in Cyprus. If it doesn’t, Europe’s prognosis just got a lot worse.</p>
<p>Samuelson’s columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at ABQjournal.com/opinion — look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group.</p> | Will Cyprus spell trouble for EU? | false | https://abqjournal.com/180665/will-cyprus-spell-trouble-for-eu.html | 2013-03-21 | 2 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Big Sick” star Kumail Nanjiani is heading into awards season with a mix of fear and excitement.</p>
<p>After grossing nearly $43 million at the box office, the charming crowd-pleaser picked up two Film Independent Spirit Award nominations and is considered a front-runner for Academy Award nods.</p>
<p>“It’s very scary. It’s not something that we had really considered at all,” said Nanjiani of his film’s Oscar buzz. “It’s cool to be in the conversation with so many great movies.”</p>
<p>What started as a deeply personal, indie love story, co-written by Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon, became the must-see romantic comedy of the summer.</p>
<p>“It has certainly exceeded expectations,” said Nanjiani during a recent interview at his Los Angeles home. “It’s been a lovely surprise.”</p>
<p>Set in Chicago, “The Big Sick,” which also earned two Screen Actors Guild nominations, follows the couple’s unique courtship through cultural conflicts, family ties and sickness. Nanjiani stars alongside Zoe Kazan in the Michael Showalter-directed film.</p>
<p>“When we were showing it at Sundance, we were sitting next to each other at the first screening and she (Gordon) was like, ’This is the last time it will be our story,’” he recalled. “Definitely, you can’t take it back. You know, we meet strangers and they think they know us because they do kind of know us.”</p>
<p>In its Breakthrough Entertainers of 2017 feature, AP highlights Kumail Nanjiani, whose film, “The Big Sick,” won over fans and the box office. (Dec. 13)</p>
<p>Fans also know his family, who can be seen lovingly portrayed on the big screen — and possibly in real life at a theater near you.</p>
<p>“I get these tweets from people being like, ’I saw the movie and then there was like this older Pakistani couple that was like, ‘Did you like it? That was our son!’ So they’ve been like paying to go see it over and over,” he said.</p>
<p>Nanjiani is now back to work filming season five of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” as he and Gordon plot their next move.</p>
<p>“There’s a feeling of confidence. There’s also pressure. I don’t know how to follow this,” he said with a bulletin board of colorful post-it notes bearing plot points and character ideas looming nearby.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be hopefully funny and hopefully serious, but it’s a totally different genre,” said Nanjiani, who is careful not to divulge too much just yet. “I don’t think we can write another lady-going-into-a-coma movie for a little while.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt" type="external">https://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt</a></p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Big Sick” star Kumail Nanjiani is heading into awards season with a mix of fear and excitement.</p>
<p>After grossing nearly $43 million at the box office, the charming crowd-pleaser picked up two Film Independent Spirit Award nominations and is considered a front-runner for Academy Award nods.</p>
<p>“It’s very scary. It’s not something that we had really considered at all,” said Nanjiani of his film’s Oscar buzz. “It’s cool to be in the conversation with so many great movies.”</p>
<p>What started as a deeply personal, indie love story, co-written by Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon, became the must-see romantic comedy of the summer.</p>
<p>“It has certainly exceeded expectations,” said Nanjiani during a recent interview at his Los Angeles home. “It’s been a lovely surprise.”</p>
<p>Set in Chicago, “The Big Sick,” which also earned two Screen Actors Guild nominations, follows the couple’s unique courtship through cultural conflicts, family ties and sickness. Nanjiani stars alongside Zoe Kazan in the Michael Showalter-directed film.</p>
<p>“When we were showing it at Sundance, we were sitting next to each other at the first screening and she (Gordon) was like, ’This is the last time it will be our story,’” he recalled. “Definitely, you can’t take it back. You know, we meet strangers and they think they know us because they do kind of know us.”</p>
<p>In its Breakthrough Entertainers of 2017 feature, AP highlights Kumail Nanjiani, whose film, “The Big Sick,” won over fans and the box office. (Dec. 13)</p>
<p>Fans also know his family, who can be seen lovingly portrayed on the big screen — and possibly in real life at a theater near you.</p>
<p>“I get these tweets from people being like, ’I saw the movie and then there was like this older Pakistani couple that was like, ‘Did you like it? That was our son!’ So they’ve been like paying to go see it over and over,” he said.</p>
<p>Nanjiani is now back to work filming season five of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” as he and Gordon plot their next move.</p>
<p>“There’s a feeling of confidence. There’s also pressure. I don’t know how to follow this,” he said with a bulletin board of colorful post-it notes bearing plot points and character ideas looming nearby.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be hopefully funny and hopefully serious, but it’s a totally different genre,” said Nanjiani, who is careful not to divulge too much just yet. “I don’t think we can write another lady-going-into-a-coma movie for a little while.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Nicole Evatt on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt" type="external">https://twitter.com/NicoleEvatt</a></p> | 2017 Breakthrough: Kumail Nanjiani of ‘The Big Sick’ | false | https://apnews.com/e98b2ae921c04c078ad2775c31947300 | 2017-12-13 | 2 |
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<p>FILE – This Tuesday, April 1, 2014 file photo shows a key in the ignition switch of a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt in Alexandria, Va. General Motors has recalled millions of small cars, including the 2005 Cobalt, for faulty ignition switches. The ignition switch can slip out of the “run” position and into the “accessory” or “off” position. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)</p>
<p>DETROIT — General Motors issued a new round of recalls for faulty ignition switches this week, but the company says the problem is different than the ignition switch defect that sparked recalls in February. At the same time, Chrysler is recalling vehicles for a similar ignition switch defect.</p>
<p>Here’s some background on the recalls and information for drivers who may be concerned.</p>
<p>Q. There have been a lot of recalls lately for ignition switch problems. What’s wrong?</p>
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<p>A. In all of the recalled vehicles, the ignition switch can slip out of the “run” position and into the “accessory” or “off” position. It happens for different reasons. In some GM cars, the switch didn’t meet specifications and was too loose. In others, the switch meets specifications but jarring — from the road or even the driver’s knee — or weight on the key chain can tug the ignition switch out of position. In any case, the outcome is the same. If the car is in “accessory” or “off,” the engine will stall, power steering and power brakes won’t work and the air bags won’t deploy in the event of a crash.</p>
<p>Q. What should I do if the key slips out of the “run” position while I’m driving?</p>
<p>A. Look for the safest way off the road. That usually means heading for the right shoulder. Don’t press the brakes too quickly; let the car’s momentum help you navigate through high-speed traffic. Flick on the turn signal or emergency flashers to alert other vehicles. The steering will still work, but it will be harder to use. You will also need to push harder on the brakes.</p>
<p>Q. I drive one of the recalled cars, but the dealer doesn’t have enough parts to repair it right away. What should I do?</p>
<p>A. GM says its cars are safe to drive as long as customers remove all items from their key rings, including the key fob. For the 2.6 million vehicles involved in the original February recall, GM is providing rental cars to customers until repairs are made. But it’s not providing rentals for vehicles in its other recalls. Meanwhile, Chrysler says it’s unaware of any injuries related to its recall, but suggests that people remove everything from their key chains.</p>
<p>Q. Is there something wrong with GM’s ignition switches?</p>
<p>A. Definitely in the case of the 2.6 million small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt that started the recalls. They went into production even though their switches were too easy to turn and didn’t meet GM specifications. On the other switch recalls, GM says the problem is with the keys or fobs dangling from the key ring. But experts say the switches are to blame. They should be designed so they can’t be inadvertently knocked out of the “run” position.</p>
<p>Q. If I don’t drive a GM or Chrysler vehicle, am I OK? Or is this a wider problem?</p>
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<p>A. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating ignition switch performance across the industry since the GM recalls were announced. That broader investigation is what led to the Chrysler recall.</p>
<p>Q. I’d like more details. Which vehicles are involved in which recall?</p>
<p>A. GM has issued the following recalls in North America:</p>
<p>— 11.5 million large cars because the key can tug the ignitions out of the “run” position. Three separate recalls — all issued in June — included the 2000-2014 Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo; 1997-2005 Chevrolet Malibu; 1999-2005 Pontiac Grand Am and older Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac models. More information can be found here: https://recalls.gm.com</p>
<p>— 2.6 million small cars because the ignition switch, which has a faulty design, can slip out of the “run” position. The recall, issued in February, includes the 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt; 2007-2010 Pontiac G5; and 2003-2007 Saturn Ion. More information can be found here: <a href="http://www.gmignitionupdate.com/index.html" type="external">http://www.gmignitionupdate.com/index.html</a></p>
<p>— 511,529 Chevrolet Camaros because the driver’s knee can hit the key and cause the ignition to slip out of the “run” position. The recall includes the 2010-2014 Camaro.</p>
<p>Chrysler has issued the following recall in North America:</p>
<p>— 695,957 minivans and SUVs because the ignition switch can slip out of the “run” position. The recall includes the 2007-2009 Chrysler Town &amp; Country, 2007-2009 Dodge Grand Caravan and 2007-2009 Dodge Journey. Chrysler recalled and repaired 2010 models of the same vehicles three years ago. Customers with questions can call 1-800-853-1403.</p>
<p>——–</p>
<p>Connie Cass contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.</p> | Recalls raise questions about ignition switches | false | https://abqjournal.com/423626/recalls-raise-questions-about-ignition-switches.html | 2 |
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<p>On Wednesday, Jamie Leigh Jones told a House Judiciary Committee her now-famous story about having been allegedly drugged and gang-raped two years ago by several coworkers shortly after arriving in Iraq as a contractor for KBR, an engineering and construction firm contracted with the military to provide logistical support to the troops. Jones’ story has prompted widespread outrage, partly because the Justice Department and the military failed to prosecute her attackers, but also because it appears that Jones can’t sue KBR for placing her in harm’s way.</p>
<p>When Jones went to work for KBR in Texas, and later for its subsidiary, Overseas Administrative Services, she signed contracts containing mandatory binding arbitration clauses, which required her to give up her right to sue the companies and any right to a jury trial. Instead, the contracts forced Jones to press her case through private arbitration, which she did in 2006. In that forum, the company that allegedly wronged her pays the arbitrator who is hearing the case. For that she can thank Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>At the time of the alleged attack on Jones, KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton, the behemoth military-contracting and oil-technology firm. (KBR was sold off earlier this year.) So Jones is covered by the Halliburton dispute-resolution program, which was implemented when Cheney was Halliburton’s CEO. The system bears the markings of Cheney’s obsession with secrecy and executive power. On his watch, Halliburton, in late 1997, made it more difficult for its employees to sue the company for discrimination, sexual harassment, and other workplace-related issues.</p>
<p>One day, Halliburton sent all its employees a brochure explaining that the company was implementing a new dispute resolution system. The company sold the new program as an employee perk that would create an “open door” policy for bringing grievances to management and as a forum for resolving disputes without expensive and lengthy litigation. In practice, it meant that anyone who had a legitimate civil-rights or personal-injury claim signed away his or her constitutional right to a jury trial. Anyone who showed up for work after getting the brochure was considered to have agreed to give up his or her rights, regardless of whether the employees had actually read it. In 2001, the conservative and pro-business Texas Supreme Court overturned two lower courts to declare that this move was legal.</p>
<p>Dallas lawyer John Wall has something of a franchise suing Halliburton on behalf of employees in civil-rights and other workplace cases. He says there hasn’t been a year since 1986 that he hasn’t had at least one case against Halliburton. He’s represented dozens of the company’s employees and won numerous settlements and jury trials in civil lawsuits against the company. The reason, he says, is that Halliburton targets “the old, the injured, and the ill” when it makes layoff decisions, and it has a history of firing people for making workers compensation claims. Under the arbitration process, he says, Halliburton has fared much better, winning many more cases. When it loses, he says, the company pays significantly lower damages, which he says rarely exceed $50,000.</p>
<p>The dispute-resolution program had been in place at one Halliburton subsidiary for a few years before Cheney arrived. But Wall contends that Halliburton adopted it for the rest of the company to head off lawsuits that would invariably have resulted from Cheney’s ill-fated decision to merge Halliburton with Dresser Industries, a troubled company that had once employed both George H.W. Bush and his father, Prescott Bush. Indeed, court documents show that Halliburton sent out its arbitration brochure just months before the merger. Afterward, Halliburton closed several Dresser plants in Texas, firing 10,000 people.</p>
<p>Federal law requires companies to give 60 days notice before closing a manufacturing plant. Failing to follow the law can leave a company liable for back pay and benefits to laid-off employees. Rather than announce the plant closings, Wall says, Halliburton moved the Dresser employees from the targeted plants onto the Halliburton payroll, even though in many cases there were no jobs for them. Then, once they were on Halliburton’s books and bound by the binding arbitration clause, they were let go.</p>
<p>Among those laid off in 1999 was a longtime Halliburton employee named Lonnie Pennington. Pennington had sued Halliburton once before, back in the 1980s, for retaliating against him for filing a workers compensation claim concerning a back injury. That case resulted in a jury verdict of almost $200,000 in 1989. Halliburton continued to fight the verdict for another three years, and refused to reinstate Pennington until1992.</p>
<p>When he was fired again in 1999, Pennington made a formal complaint to the Texas Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the layoff was not only a form of retaliation for his complaints about discrimination on the job but also violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and the 1967 federal law barring age discrimination in the workplace. As part of its investigation, the commission sent repeated requests to Halliburton for the layoff documentation, but the company refused to respond. Finally, the commission sent a letter to Cheney’s office with a gentle reminder that the law required Halliburton to respond. Wall says that Cheney reportedly called the commission and basically told them to fuck off.</p>
<p>So the commission contacted the sheriff and had him serve Cheney with a subpoena for the documents. Rather than turn over the documents, however, Halliburton shredded them. (Wall eventually deposed the woman who did the shredding,.) In a traditional civil lawsuit, judges have wide latitude to impose sanctions against a defendant for destroying evidence. They can tell a jury to assume that the information was extremely damaging to the defense. They can impose fines. They can find for the plaintiff and toss out the rest of the case to punish the other side, regardless of how strong the case was.</p>
<p>But when Pennington later went before the Halliburton arbitrator, the arbitrator dismissed his case, saying he had failed to produce sufficient evidence to support his claims, which, of course, was difficult to do after Halliburton had shredded part of his personnel file. The arbitrator made no mention of the evidence destruction. Wall protested the evidence destruction to the Texas Attorney General, Republican John Cornyn, who is now a U.S. senator, but Wall says Cornyn’s office never investigated and no one was ever held accountable for it.</p>
<p>By May of this year, when her lawyer sued in federal court to try to get her case before a jury, Jaime Leigh Jones had been in arbitration with KBR for 15 months. L. Todd Kelly, her lawyer, recently called arbitration a “star chamber,” and argued that it was a way of keeping her case out of the public eye. In court, both Halliburton and KBR have responded to the suit by arguing that Jones knew what she was doing when she signed her employment contract and that she should have to abide by the arbitration agreement. In response to the media flurry triggered by Jones’ public allegations, KBR and Halliburton have also claimed that private arbitration is not secretive. Halliburton’s history suggests otherwise.</p>
<p>In 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched a probe into accounting irregularities at Halliburton that came in the aftermath of its merger with Dresser Industries. The merger had resulted in a huge drop in Halliburton’s stock value due to enormous unsettled asbestos liabilities that Cheney had failed to disclose to shareholders when he won their approval for the merger. As the inquiry heated up, reporters started looking at Cheney’s tenure as CEO. One of them called Wall, who told the journalist about the shredding incident. A few days later, Wall received a “cease and desist” order from the arbitrator who had handled the Pennington case, telling him that he could not disclose anything about the document shredding.</p>
<p>It was a sign that secrecy is one of the reasons that Halliburton prefers arbitration. If its employees could sue the company in a regular court, reporters would have access to all the complaints and most of the documents in the cases. They could locate the plaintiffs and interview them. In effect, there would be some sunshine on Halliburton and KBR’s corporate behavior. Instead, complaints made through private arbitration are virtually impossible to find and examine in any systematic way.</p>
<p>This week, I asked the American Arbitration Association (AAA), which handles many of Halliburton’s arbitrations, if I could review all the complaints filed against the company by its employees in arbitration over the past three years—complaints that would be public if they had been filed in a courthouse. I received the following response:</p>
<p>“The AAA adheres to strict Standards of Ethics and Business Conduct, guided by our core values of Integrity, Conflict Management, and Service. As part of these ethical standards, we avoid any conflicts of interest that may jeopardize our impartiality. The AAA’s rules protect the confidentiality of the arbitration process by restricting the disclosure of information related to cases filed with the AAA by AAA employees and arbitrators.”</p>
<p>When I protested, noting that simply releasing the complaints would not affect anyone’s impartiality, an AAA spokesperson sent me to Richard Naimark, a senior vice president at the company. He explained that while arbitrations aren’t necessarily confidential—though many are—they are technically owned by the two parties, who can release the information if they want to, but AAA cannot. Naimark insisted that employees like the confidential nature of arbitration. “Americans value their privacy,” he said.</p>
<p>Rather than privacy, employment lawyers routinely say that most employees they represent crave a jury trial. Texas lawyer Barbara Gardner challenged the way Halliburton forced arbitration on its employees, but, after losing the case in 2001 before the Texas Supreme Court, she has taken a dim view of mandatory arbitration in employment contracts. “Employees don’t fare very well in arbitration,” she says “It’s not a level playing field. It’s all set up to make sure the employer wins.” Her firm will no longer handle employment cases forced into private arbitration because they are considered so hopeless.</p>
<p>While it’s impossible to get all the complaints filed by Halliburton’s employees, it is, thanks to a California state law requiring arbitration companies to disclose some bare-bones data, possible to examine Halliburton’s track record in those cases. Employment lawyer Cathy Ventrell-Monsees testified before Congress in October that AAA data show that between January 2003 and March 31, 2007, of the 39 Halliburton cases that went all the way to a decision, Halliburton won 32, a win rate of 82 percent. Plaintiffs in employment litigation face a high bar in court trials as well, but even so, that figure is very high. Employers win about 64 percent of all employment cases at trial in federal court and about half in state court, according to data from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).</p>
<p>The AAA data is a bit inscrutable, but a quick review of its most recent public report suggests, too, that the employee “winners” in Halliburton arbitrations aren’t winning much money. Out of 119 cases disposed of between April 2003 and March 2007, I could only find three in which the arbitrator actually awarded any money. The largest was for $82,000, and the smallest was a little over $7,000.</p>
<p>In state courts, according to the BJS, 43 percent of the awards in employment- discrimination trials were more than $250,000, and 16 percent were above a million dollars. The median award in state court for a discrimination case was $218,000 in 2001, the most recent year for which data is available. It’s not too hard to see why Halliburton and KBR want to keep Jaime Leigh Jones in arbitration. If the allegations she has made are true, and her lawyers can prove it, her case could be worth many millions of dollars in a jury trial. It could also be both expensive and embarrassing, two things that Cheney clearly wanted to avoid a decade ago when he stacked the deck against his company’s employees.</p>
<p /> | Cheney Justice? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2007/12/cheney-justice/ | 2007-12-21 | 4 |
<p>Saturday, September 23, 2017 by <a href="author/francesb" type="external">Frances Bloomfield</a></p>
<p>//www.newstarget.com/2017-09-23-security-cameras-are-a-security-risk-and-not-just-to-your-privacy-researchers-demonstrate-how-they-can-be-hacked.html</p>
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<p>A team of Israeli security researchers have demonstrated how hackers could use infrared light (IR) to control the behavior of malware-infected security cameras. Through their proof-of-concept malware — dubbed “aIR-Jumper” — the researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) were able to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170919160228.htm" type="external">extract and send information to these surveillance devices</a>, the process of which they <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.05742" type="external">detailed in their paper</a>.</p>
<p>Led by Dr. Mordechai Guri, the team utilized IR light to achieve optical communication between air-gapped internal networks, or computers that have been isolated and disconnected from the internet. These types of computers are usually considered safe thanks to their detachment, yet Guri and his colleagues found that using malware to manipulate the intensity of IR light can give hackers free reign to access, encode, and transmit sensitive data.</p>
<p>The researchers made two videos to illustrate their point. In the first video, known as the exfiltration scenario, an attacker accessed the security cameras with the help of the aIR-Jumper malware to command IR light illumination. They then used IR signals to transmit sensitive data like passwords, PIN codes, and encryption keys.</p>
<p>In the second video, or the infiltration scenario, an attacker hundreds of yards away sent hidden IR signals to the security camera. Beacon messages and command and control (C&amp;C) could be encoded into these IR signals and then intercepted by the malware hiding in the network to influence the behavior of the security cameras.</p>
<p>Additionally, the researchers noted that the covert channel could send data from a security camera to an attacker at the rate of 20 bits per second; conversely, an attacker could send data to a security camera at around 100 bits per second, though the bit-rate may be boosted by the use of a camera.</p>
<p>What’s more is that, according to the researchers, these scenarios are applicable to any device that can detect IR light. These include professional surveillance cameras, home security cameras, and LED doorbells.</p>
<p>“Security cameras are unique in that they have ‘one leg’ inside the organization, connected to the internal networks for security purposes, and ‘the other leg’ outside the organization, aimed specifically at a nearby public space, providing very convenient optical access from various directions and angles,” said Guri. (Related: <a href="//www.naturalnews.com/047752_security_cameras_home_privacy_surveillance.html" type="external">Is the whole world watching your private home security camera? 73,000 now online</a>.)</p>
<p>He further added: “Theoretically, you can send an infrared command to tell a high-security system to simply unlock the gate or front door to your house.”</p>
<p>aIR-Jumper has become the latest demonstration of security vulnerability from Guri and his team, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/attackers-can-use-surveillance-cameras-to-grab-data-from-air-gapped-networks/" type="external">according to ArsTechnica.com</a>. Previous efforts include a technique that gives an infected computer’s video card the ability to transmit radio signals to smartphones capable of receiving FM signals, and an air-gap jumper that can relay data through acoustic signals emitted from the hard drive.</p>
<p>What makes aIR-Jumper unique is that those using it don’t need to be directly in the line of sight of the video camera for it to work. As long as the area surrounding the camera is irradiated by IR lights, then an attacker can use aIR-Jumper to hack into the camera. aIR-Jumper has proven to be just as effective against networks protected by firewalls and other security systems as it can easily bypass these measures even without physical access.</p>
<p>However dangerous aIR-Jumper is, it is still possible to render it useless by placing security cameras in zones optically inaccessible to potential attackers.</p>
<p>Go to <a href="//surveillance.news/" type="external">Surveillance.news</a> to become aware of the other possible security dangers lurking in your home.</p>
<p>Sources include:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170919160228.htm" type="external">ScienceDaily.com</a> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.05742" type="external">Arxiv.org</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/attackers-can-use-surveillance-cameras-to-grab-data-from-air-gapped-networks/" type="external">ArsTechnica.com</a></p>
<p>Tagged Under: Tags: <a href="tag/cyber-warfare" type="external">cyber warfare</a>, <a href="tag/hacking" type="external">hacking</a>, <a href="tag/home-privacy" type="external">home privacy</a>, <a href="tag/infrared" type="external">infrared</a>, <a href="tag/privacy" type="external">privacy</a>, <a href="tag/security-cameras" type="external">security cameras</a>, <a href="tag/surveillance" type="external">surveillance</a>, <a href="tag/webcams" type="external">webcams</a></p> | Security cameras ARE a security risk: Researchers demonstrate how they can be hacked to exploit sensitive information | true | https://newstarget.com/2017-09-23-security-cameras-are-a-security-risk-and-not-just-to-your-privacy-researchers-demonstrate-how-they-can-be-hacked.html | 0 |
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<p>The city’s Environmental Planning Commission was scheduled to vote on the retailer’s proposed site plan for a 98,500-square-foot store at the southeast corner of Coors and Montaño on Aug. 23. If approved, the company would be able to proceed with construction of the store.</p>
<p>However, the City Council is in the midst of reviewing another matter that could affect the company’s plans to build the store. As a result, Planning Department staff will be asking that the case be deferred until the Environmental Planning Commission’s Sept. 20 meeting, according to Deborah Nason, spokeswoman for the Planning Department.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the Taylor Ranch Neighborhood Association, which has vehemently opposed the store, appealed a decision made by the city’s interim code enforcement manager stating traffic would have “full access” to the store as defined by the city’s “big box” ordinance. The neighbors do not believe that is true.</p>
<p>The City Council was scheduled to hold the appeal hearing this past Monday, but voted to delay the hearing to a future date, most likely its Aug. 20 meeting. It was this delay that is prompting Planning Department staff to ask for a deferral. If granted, this would be the third delay for the hearing.</p>
<p>The EPC initially reviewed the site plan during a marathon 10-hour meeting in January and was scheduled to make a final decision in March. However, Tierra West LLC, which represents the developer, asked the commission for a deferral so it could have time to address the more than 100 comments made by the public during the January hearing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Before the March hearing could happen, the Taylor Ranch Neighborhood Association filed the appeal. The Planning Department then asked the EPC to delay the decision until August, giving the City Council time to rule on the appeal.</p>
<p>Opponents of the store say, among other things, that the area cannot handle more traffic and a store of that size and nature so close to the river would adversely affect the bosque.</p>
<p>René Horvath, the Taylor Ranch Neighborhood Association’s land use director, said asking for a deferral was the correct course of action to take at this time.</p>
<p>Walmart officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday. — This article appeared on page 1 of the West Side Journal</p> | Decision On Walmart Postponed | false | https://abqjournal.com/123168/decision-on-walmart-postponed.html | 2012-08-09 | 2 |
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<p>About 400 people attended that meeting, an amazing show of public interest and engagement. Almost every single person at that meeting opposed the city’s plans.</p>
<p>In January of this year, the city then held two walks in the bosque in the Central to I-40 stretch. Those walks were a great opportunity for an exchange of ideas between the city and participants about what should be done in this area, but no specific plans for this area were disclosed.</p>
<p>These were the only public meetings that the city held on its plans for the Central to I-40 bosque.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The city repeatedly promised that it would allow the public to review and comment on its plans before it selected the alternative it would construct. For instance, the city’s website formerly stated: “There will be opportunities for public review and comment on the design during the schematic and construction document design phases.”</p>
<p>The Open Space Division had been engaged with interested parties in private discussions over what the trail in the Central to I-40 bosque would be. These discussions would have lead to a consensus option in the near future.</p>
<p>The city also promised that it would obtain the required approvals from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the United States Bureau of Reclamation, and that it would present its project for review by the city’s Open Space Advisory Board. None of this was ever done, nor did the city obtain a required storm water discharge permit or undertake other consultations required by federal law.</p>
<p>Instead, with no advance announcement to the public or to any of the affected agencies and bodies, the city began construction Feb. 9 of one version of the trail that had been roundly rejected by the public at the Sept. 4, 2013, public meeting.</p>
<p>The city is building its trail with next to no public input, disregarding what the overwhelming majority of interested city residents want, and ignoring the consultations, permits and approvals required from the city’s partners in management of the bosque.</p>
<p>The trail that is being constructed has several problems from the bosque users’ point of view. First, the city’s new, widened trail hugs the bank of the river for a significant portion of its length in the location of what was previously a narrow footpath. The river bank is the most environmentally sensitive portion of the bosque and is heavily utilized by birds and other wildlife in the bosque. People want to get to the river, and the trail should allow people to get to the river, but the city should seek to minimize impacts to the riverbank. Instead, the city’s trail will greatly increase the impacts to this area.</p>
<p>Second, the trail the city is building will be an obviously constructed trail that will be inconsistent with the natural character of the bosque.</p>
<p>Meetings get a bad rap. They require a good deal of effort in planning and coordination, and they are time-consuming and often tedious. But meetings are also the stuff of democracy. They are where concerned citizens can make their wishes known and have an effect on the outcome of public decisions. They are a principal way that those that govern obtain consent and legitimacy from the governed.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the city decided it didn’t need the consent of its citizens in this case.</p>
<p /> | City failed to follow through on promises with bosque trail | false | https://abqjournal.com/546600/city-failed-to-follow-through-on-promises-with-bosque-trail.html | 2 |
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<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "Daily Pick 3" game were:</p>
<p>2-7-7</p>
<p>(two, seven, seven)</p>
<p>¶ Maximum prize: $500</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery's "Daily Pick 3" game were:</p>
<p>2-7-7</p>
<p>(two, seven, seven)</p>
<p>¶ Maximum prize: $500</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Daily Pick 3' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/3c867a5d7bbd4edca8d4f445fae2c2a3 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
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<p>FORT WORTH, Texas - Officials say thousands of rosebushes in North Texas have been affected by a disease that leaves them with puckered leaves, deformed buds and thorn-covered stems.</p>
<p>Fort Worth Botanic Gardens senior horticulturist Steve Huddleston says rose rosette disease arrived in North Texas three years ago, but this year has been particularly difficult. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1TLtgWc" type="external">http://bit.ly/1TLtgWc</a> ) reports the disease has no cure and is spread by mites.</p>
<p>Gardeners at the Botanic Gardens have ripped up and replaced hundreds of diseased rosebushes in the Rose Garden. More than 5,400 rosebushes in medians and parks in suburban Southlake have been removed and replaced.</p>
<p>Dallas Arboretum vice president Dave Forehand says that rose rosette is an "epidemic," and that "North Texas is the epicenter."</p>
<p>According to Huddleston, crews have to constantly keep an eye out because dealing with the disease has been an uphill battle. "You plant a bush and four months later have to rip it out. The disease is everywhere," Huddleston said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com" type="external">http://www.star-telegram.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | North Texas epicenter of rose rosette disease | false | https://abqjournal.com/615289/north-texas-epicenter-of-rose-rosette-disease.html | 2 |
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<p>Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has bought popular restaurant guide Zagat for an undisclosed amount in an effort to build its local services and delve further into a niche marketplace already dominated by Yelp and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The renowned travel and food rating service will be a cornerstone in Googles local offering, working hand-in-hand with Google Maps and its search engine, according to Marissa Mayer, vice president of Googles local, maps and location services.</p>
<p>Im incredibly excited to collaborate with Zagat to bring the power of Google search and Google Maps to their products and users, and to bring their innovation, trusted reputation and wealth of experience to our users, Mayer said Thursday on the official Google blog.</p>
<p>In its more than 32-year life, Zagat has gained the reputation of being a go-to for surveys, reviews and recommendations for restaurants all around the world. The company operates in 13 categories in more than 100 cities and provides information to customers through various platforms, from the web to pocket-sized maps.</p>
<p>Shares of restaurant reservation service OpenTable (NYSE:NASDAQ:OPEN) dived more than 11%, or $6.90, on the news.</p>
<p>Zagat founders Nina and Tim Zagat said in a note to customers on Thursday that the deal may be the most important announcement in the companys history.</p>
<p>We couldnt be happier to see our baby placed into such good hands and are looking forward to being Googlers in the years ahead, they said.</p>
<p>The Zagats, who will continue to be active in the business as co-chairs, said the takeover by Google provides the company greater opportunities to expand.</p>
<p>Terms of the deal were not disclosed.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Google Buys Restaurant Guide Zagat | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/09/08/google-purchases-zagat-restaurant-guide-group.html | 2016-01-29 | 0 |
<p />
<p>This year's MoneyRates.com Best States to Retire list includes some traditional warm-weather havens, such as Hawaii, California and Florida. But you may be surprised to see a few off-the-beaten-path locales in the top 10 too. For instance, have you considered South Dakota for your retirement?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>While MoneyRates.com recognizes that much of what marks a good place for retirement is subjective -- family and friends, cultural attractions, natural beauty -- there are plenty of objective, quantifiable factors to examine too. Knowing how a state performs in certain measures is important before you choose it for your retirement, and that's precisely what these rankings are about.</p>
<p>What matters to retirees</p>
<p>Here are the factors MoneyRates.com used to determine its third-annual lists of best and worst states to retire:</p>
<p>Best states for retirement in 2012</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Based on equally weighted rankings of those factors, the following is a list of the top 10 states for retirement. As a bonus, there are 11 states listed, due to a tie for 10th place.</p>
<p>1. Hawaii</p>
<p>Seniors in Hawaii live longer past the age of 65 than in any other state in the nation. This might have something to do with the pleasant climate, which ranked second in our calculation of consistently moderate temperatures. One warning, though: Make sure you have a <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/realpeople/achieving-a-retirement-comeback.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-148070210" type="external">well-funded retirement plan Opens a New Window.</a>, because Hawaii also has the highest cost of living in the U.S.</p>
<p>2. Idaho</p>
<p>This may be one of the surprises on the list, but Idaho combines a low crime rate with a good economy. There must be something to it -- only two states boast faster-growing senior populations than Idaho.</p>
<p>3. Utah</p>
<p>Like Idaho, this is not the place to go if you want a tropical climate, but Utah was one of the top states overall for economic factors. It is also similar to Idaho in that it has a fast-growing senior population.</p>
<p>4. Arizona</p>
<p>This warm-weather state has long attracted retirees, and people seem to thrive there -- life expectancy for 65-year-olds is third-highest in the nation. Be careful about the neighborhood you choose, though, because crime in the state is on the high side.</p>
<p>5. Virginia</p>
<p>Looking for something east of the Mississippi River? Virginia is one of two possibilities on this list. This state scored very well for its low crime rate, and reasonably well on every other criterion except life expectancy.</p>
<p>6. Colorado</p>
<p>While this might be a bit of a cold-weather state for some, Colorado's other attractions for seniors more than offset that. Only three states have seen faster growth in their senior populations, which is helped by the fact that seniors in Colorado tend to live for a long time.</p>
<p>7. (tie) Florida</p>
<p>Perhaps the state best-known for attracting retirees, Florida ranks first for climate and second for life expectancy among seniors. Still, this is another state where it matters very much where you live. The overall crime rate is among the highest in the nation.</p>
<p>7. (tie) New Mexico</p>
<p>This southwestern state has been attracting seniors at a rapid rate, but as with Florida, you'll want to pick your location with care. New Mexico's overall crime rate is one of the 10 worst in the nation.</p>
<p>9. South Dakota</p>
<p>The cold climate in this state probably explains why it hasn't traditionally attracted seniors in large numbers, but those seniors that do live there have one of the highest average life expectancies in the nation. The crime rate is also one of the lowest in the U.S.</p>
<p>10. (tie) California</p>
<p>Its economic woes are well-known, and worth considering, but California's climate goes a long way toward explaining why it has been attractive to seniors. Life expectancies are also among the best in the nation.</p>
<p>10. (tie) Texas</p>
<p>Warm weather and a solid economy have helped make Texas attractive to seniors. However, it's a big state that's not without its trouble spots: The overall crime rate is another one of the nation's 10 worst.</p>
<p>Perhaps the greatest strength of the above list is its variety: East Coast, West Coast, North, and South are all represented. So whatever regional connections and preferences you have, this list should give you at least one retirement possibility to consider.</p>
<p>For more on how other states placed, please see our list of <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/worst-states-for-retirement/2012.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-148070210" type="external">10 Worst Places to Retire Opens a New Window.</a> and the full <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/best-states-for-retirement/2012-complete-list.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-148070210" type="external">50-state rankings Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The original article can be found at Money-Rates.com: <a href="http://www.money-rates.com/research-center/best-states-for-retirement/2012.htm?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-148070210" type="external">10 Best States to Retire 2012 Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Ten Best States to Retire 2012 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/10/25/10-best-states-to-retire-2012.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>In the U.S. and Europe, the movement of squares has responded to attacks on the social good by debt resistance and direct democracy. In assemblies, mic checks and self-organization, they demonstrated that another world is possible. Now the movement is articulating full-scale resistance.</p>
<p>The movement of squares was born of the crisis of debt and democracy. In the wake of the global financial crisis, debt has been used by the 1 percent as a tool of oppression against the 99%. The corruption of so-called democratic governments has been laid bare and their rule delegitimized, and now it is Phase Two. Activists from this new social movement are building a global resistance.</p>
<p>The crisis began in the mid-1970s when the U.S. went off the gold standard and pursued policies of inflation, effectively plunging the Third World into a debt crisis. From Burkina Faso to Argentina, countries took out predatory loans from the IMF and World Bank to pay the difference, but they could not pay and, in many cases, did not pay back these loans. Domestically, the U.S. experienced decades of deregulation, which expanded the financial sector and allowed for increased speculation.</p>
<p>By 2006 and 2007 the housing bubble was already in the making. Market rates had begun to fall, causing subprime mortgage holders to default on their loans. Major financial institutions that held these mortgages with other assets overvalued them and repackaged them, but that couldn't last. The bubble burst in September 2008.</p>
<p>Despite public outcry, Congress responded by approving the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and they effectively socialized the private debts of the financial sector and placed the burden of these debts on taxpayers. Very little has been done to help the 99%, who were already burdened by crushing personal private debts including medical, student, credit debts and other financial instruments.</p>
<p>The average American has a double debt burden. First, there is their personal debt. Then there is the public debt taken from the private losses, which, in turn increases personal debt. Why? The federal government uses the increase in national debt as an excuse to make cuts to social services. If the social welfare is not provided for, then the burden is placed on the individual. This is the failure of the modern liberal democracy.</p>
<p>In Europe, they also experienced a private debt crisis that caused banks to be bailed out and consolidated. Economists and politicians call this the "sovereign debt crisis." Euro zone countries, mainly in the south, have been underwater and seeking bailouts from the Troika. This has been undermining the sovereignty of E.U. members and has essentially meant a "structural adjustment" of the member states. The southern countries are making cuts to social services and effectively disassembling the European welfare state.</p>
<p>The movement of squares responded in the U.S. and Europe by reclaiming the public sphere and demonstrating an alternative to a failed economic and political system. But it is only now, after the first wave of occupations, that the movement is articulating a real resistance.</p>
<p>I was privileged enough to attend Agora 99, held in Madrid in early November, as an emissary from Occupy Wall Street. The convergence was the first meeting of the Occupy, 15M and Bloccupy networks in Europe and was held in an archipelago of social centers throughout the city. The conference organizers framed the event around debt, democracy and rights.</p>
<p>I participated in the debt and democracy axis. The debt axis was composed of groups from ICAN (International Citizens Audit Network). The democracy axis reflected the interests of various occupy groups, 15M commissions, assemblies. Each axis met throughout the course of the weekend and developed statements and roadmaps for action. It was a beautiful exercise in consensus-building from the movements who do it best.</p>
<p>The closing assembly was held in EKO (espacio sociocultural liberado autogestionado), a self-managed squatted social center run by the Popular Assembly of Carabanchel, which houses a caf?, library, free store, and assembly space. On the third floor the facilitation team huddled before the assembly began drafting an agenda that would meet the needs of all axes. They also arranged translation in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French.</p>
<p>Hundreds of people gathered in the drafty third-floor meeting space, where an Agora flag hung from exposed rafters. Each axis was given time to present their declarations. The debt axis presented and read, "debt has proven to be the most powerful domination tool of the capitalist system." The democracy group read, "We need a new people's sovereignty and a constituent process, and by this we don't mean constitution." There was a very clear sense that debt was the problem and direct democracy was the solution.</p>
<p>Upon returning to New York I was able to reflect on the state of the movement and how this moment came to be. In the U.S. and Europe the language of debt and democracy had been building for some time.</p>
<p>In May 2012, Strike Debt formed from people engaged in Occupy Wall Street and the Student Debt campaign in New York City. Hundreds of people gathered in open assemblies held at Washington Square Park and discussed the formation of a debt resistance movement.</p>
<p>On September 17, 2012 - the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street - Strike Debt has issued the DROM (Debt Resistors Operations Manual), aimed at education and outreach. The introduction states, "To the financial establishment of the world, we have only one thing to say: We owe you nothing. To our friends, our families, our communities, to humanity and to the natural world that makes our lives possible, we owe you everything. Every dollar we take from a fraudulent subprime mortgage speculator, every dollar we withhold from the collection agency is a tiny piece of our own lives and freedom that we can give back to our communities, to those we love and we respect. These are acts of debt resistance."</p>
<p>In March 2012, the Citizens Debt Audit Platform (PACD) began at a conference in Madrid. Activists gathered to decide on core principles and a roadmap for action. They decided on the slogan, "Don't Owe! Won't Pay!" The following month the ICAN (International Citizens Debt Audit Network) was formed to increase communication in primarily Europe and the Mediterranean. Now, there are dozens of groups working around debt in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, U.K., Greece, Egypt and Tunisia that are connected and building solidarity.</p>
<p>Emma Aviles from PACD Barcelona, an ICAN member, wrote to me and described the group as "a de-centralized network of activists aimed at exposing evidence of the illegitimacy of debt and calling for the nonpayment of all illegitimate debts, as well as denouncing the financial and economic system that is at the origin of this crisis, in order to advance together toward a change of the social, economic, political and human system."</p>
<p>The question of what makes a legitimate or illegitimate debt is not easily answered, for it varies depending on the context. Aviles said that illegitimate debts are those that "have a negative impact on the well-being of the citizens or the violation of their economic, social and cultural rights."</p>
<p>This idea is not new. It predates the 15M and Occupy movements and, at its most basic level, is an idea as old as debt itself. Nick Deardon of the Jubilee Campaign in the U.K., a member of the ICAN network wrote to me, "A jubilee is an ancient concept; every so often ancient monarchs in Mesopotamia would cancel the debts of their subjects. They realized if they didn't do this, debt would go on getting bigger and tearing the structure of society apart. Peasants would have to sell their fields and families to pay the debts. Wealth and power would become concentrated. A jubilee returned the ancient economy to a kind of equilibrium and made amends for the injustice debt had caused."</p>
<p>It is also not new to talk about debt in the context of neo-liberalism. In addition to the many anti-colonial struggles around debt, there has been international solidarity. For example, CADTM (The Committee for the Cancellation of Third World Debt), another ICAN member, started doing debt solidarity work in the early 1990s and continues to this day. Jerome Duval of CADTM wrote to me, "we try to link each struggle to debt liberation, but we want to go further than debt cancellation and suggest a radical change of the 'debt system.'"</p>
<p>What is new is the context of the global financial crisis and the new movements that have come about. They are breathing life into an old idea. Strike Debt continues to build their network. Most recently, the group took on the "rolling jubilee," which launched with a cabaret-style telethon called The People's Bailout in which people donated money to abolish personal debt. The project to date has abolished over $100,000 in medical debt, and is still going strong. Inspired by the DROM and Rolling Jubilee, dozens of Strike Debt affiliated groups have sprung up around the U.S. forming their own assemblies.</p>
<p>The ICAN members are auditing their governments and financial institutions to evaluate illegitimate debts. The network is planning for a convergence in Greece in January, as well as a meetup at the World Social Forum in Tunis in March.</p>
<p>The 99% are all debtors, whether they live in an indebted country or hold personal debts. We are all affected by the debt system. A global crisis calls for global debt resistance and an embrace of direct democracy. It is a logical progression for 15M and the Occupy Movement to make.</p>
<p>The 1% is betting against our future. If we are to have a world that is humane and just, and, really, to have a world at all, we must act democratically in the present and open the space for radical imagination. It is a battle for the future, and the 99% must win.</p> | Debt Versus Democracy: A Battle for the Future | true | http://occupy.com/article/debt-versus-democracy-battle-future | 4 |
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<p>Former President Bill Clinton delivered possibly one of the best political speeches of this century. Watch his best 15 lines from last night’s DNC.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Watch the full speech: <a href="" type="internal">Bill Clinton Says GOP Will ‘Double Down On Trickle Down’ In Amazing DNC Speech</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Make <a href="" type="internal">The New Civil Rights Movement</a> your Democratic National Committee 2012 convention headquarters — read <a href="" type="internal">all our DNC 2012 articles here</a>!</p>
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<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
<p>Also, please&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Civil-Rights-Movement/358168880614" type="external">like us on Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gaycivilrights" type="external">follow us on Twitter</a>!</p> | Watch: Bill’s Barn Burners — Clinton’s 15 Best Lines In 5 Minutes | true | http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/watch-bills-barn-burners-clintons-15-best-lines-in-5-minutes/politics/2012/09/06/48422 | 2012-09-06 | 4 |
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<p>THE NUMBERS: The Labor Department said Thursday that 244,000 Americans applied for jobless aid last week, up by 6,000 from the previous week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell by 4,000 to 241,000, lowest since July 1973.</p>
<p>Overall, 2.06 million people are collecting unemployment checks, down 7.7 percent from a year ago.</p>
<p>THE TAKEAWAY: Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs. They have come in below 300,000 a week for 103 straight weeks, the longest such streak since 1970. The low levels of claims suggest that employers are confident enough in the economy to hang on to their workers and perhaps know it would be difficult to find replacements in a tight job market.</p>
<p>KEY DRIVERS: Employers added a healthy 227,000 jobs in January after averaging 187,000 a month last year. The unemployment rate is 4.8 percent, which the Federal Reserve considers full employment.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The pattern (in jobless claims) is consistent with the trend in employment growth remaining strong — more than strong enough to keep the unemployment rate trending down,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research report.</p>
<p>Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said that the central bank is close to achieving its goals of maximum employment and modest 2 percent inflation.</p>
<p>She noted in congressional testimony last week that at the December meeting Fed officials expected to raise rates three times this year. Many private economists believe the Fed won’t start raising rates until June, giving the Fed more time to assess the potential impact President Donald Trump’s stimulus program of tax cuts and infrastructure spending will have on the economy.</p> | Claims for US jobless benefits tick up, level still healthy | false | https://abqjournal.com/955619/claims-for-us-jobless-benefits-tick-up-level-still-healthy.html | 2017-02-23 | 2 |
<p>SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — For Vadim Mordashov, Sunday’s referendum in Crimea was a dream come true.</p>
<p>By midday — long before voting ended — the bespectacled separatist, a former parliamentarian and veteran of the region’s pro-Russian political scene, was already gushing with confidence.</p>
<p>“After 23 years, we’re finally celebrating the liberation of Crimea from Ukrainian occupation,” said the slight 58-year-old, his leather newsboy cap and neatly trimmed beard lending him the air of a Bolshevik revolutionary.</p>
<p>In the event, an overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to join Russia.</p>
<p>Three weeks and one dubious vote after Kremlin-backed separatists here took power, they’ve achieved what the region’s fringe pro-Moscow movement couldn’t for two decades.</p>
<p>Thanks to the thousands of Russian troops that seized control of the peninsula as well as a Russian state media campaign that’s convinced most locals of the “fascist” threat Kyiv’s new authorities post to Crimea, the region is just a minor legality or two away from formally joining Russia.</p>
<p>The Kremlin’s actions may have caught Kyiv unaware by taking place almost overnight, but they exploited longstanding grievances that briefly buoyed an ill-fated secession movement in the 1990s headed by separatist Yuriy Meshkov, Crimea’s only president.</p>
<p>At the center of that movement was a 1992 Crimean constitution that granted a form of de facto independence to the region. While it kept the region in Ukraine “on the basis of a treaty,” it theoretically allowed it to enter into relations with other sovereign states.</p>
<p>Elected in 1994, Meshkov had been a strong advocate for Crimean independence and pushed for an eventual union with Russia amid a burst of separatist sentiments at the time.</p>
<p>However, Kyiv clamped down on his government the following year, abolished the Crimean presidency and forced through a constitution that kept the region firmly within Ukraine.</p>
<p>Meshkov fled to Moscow and stayed until 2011, when he returned to Ukraine only to be deported for allegedly agitating for a return of the 1992 constitution.</p>
<p>That document has played a part in the current crisis.</p>
<p>During Sunday’s vote — in which an improbable 97 percent of Crimeans voted to join Russia — the only other choice was to restore the 1992 constitution. Only 3 percent voted for the second option.</p>
<p>Even for politicians who never advocated secession, such as Vadim Kolesnichenko, a deputy from Crimea in Ukraine’s parliament, resentment against Kyiv is strong.</p>
<p>In a recent interview in Sevastopol, Kolesnichenko — an author of the 1992 constitution — said the peninsula’s self-governing authority has been “multiplied by zero” over the years.</p>
<p>“Today, Crimea has an operetta government, and it has no more power than any other regional administration,” he said.</p>
<p>Others, like Mordashov, a top Meshkov lieutenant, point to what they say had been years of abuse by the central government in Kyiv, which they allege exploited the region for its resources and gave little back.</p>
<p>“The taxes generated by Crimea have always been snatched away by Kyiv, and in the end it amounts to the pillaging of a colony,” he said.</p>
<p>“And now we see the result.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, both the Kremlin and local officials here have played heavily on the deep historical ties between Russia and Crimea, which reach back more than 200 years.</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed them in a Kremlin address on Tuesday during which he asked parliament to formalize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.</p>
<p>“To understand the reason behind such a choice,” he said, “it’s enough to know the history of Crimea and what Russia and Crimea have always meant for each other.”</p>
<p>But despite the sense of joy that’s pervaded Simferopol in recent days, the future is far from clear.</p>
<p>Hours after Putin’s proposal to annex Crimea on Tuesday, nervous customers milled outside a branch of Ukraine’s largest bank, reading a print-out taped to its glass doors announcing that it was no longer serving customers — but instead working in a “technical regime,” meaning ATM service only.</p>
<p>Even then, the bank set a withdrawal limit of $50.</p>
<p>There are a multitude of logistical concerns associated with uprooting regional institutions, such as nationalizing former Ukrainian assets, paying pensions and administering citizenship.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/russia/140317/putin-next-move-crimea-ukraine-gregory-feifer-russians" type="external">Putin would rather see civil war in Ukraine than a western-leaning democracy</a></p>
<p>Even more pressing is what to do with the Ukrainian servicemen who remain inside their bases, at least one of whom was <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/140314/crimea-awaits-referendum-live-blog" type="external">reported killed Tuesday</a> night amid a gunfight with pro-Russian gunmen.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, locals are offering a laundry list of problems they’d like Moscow to tackle once it absorbs Crimea.</p>
<p>“It’s difficult to say what the priority should be, since so much has been destroyed here,” said 50-year-old Alexei Tokhtamysh, a member of local ecological society.</p>
<p>But a good start, he says, would be reforming the education system, boosting healthcare, and stimulating the agricultural sector.</p>
<p>“The priority,” he added, “is the people.”</p>
<p>Judging by Moscow’s failed promises to revive South Ossetia, an impoverished Georgian separatist region Moscow invaded in 2008, it’s not clear that Russia will actually fulfill the dreams of many here.&#160;</p> | Crimea’s separatist movement goes back two decades | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-03-19/crimea-s-separatist-movement-goes-back-two-decades | 2014-03-19 | 3 |
<p>Dec 6, 2017 | <a href="" type="internal">Video</a></p>
<p>Aurora, CO- Sarcasm is often said to be the lowest form of wit. The folks over at Indivisible CD6 reinforced this point further with their very own Christmas carol at Mike Coffman's office on 12/5. What took place was a confusing combination of satire, complaining, and suggestions that the money they spend on taxes would otherwise be spent on prostitutes and alcohol.</p> | true | http://revealingpolitics.com/liberals-politicize-everything-indivisible-cd6-christmas-carol-tax-edition/ | 2017-12-06 | 0 |
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<p>Ungpakorn argues in his new book, "A Coup for the Rich," that the king shouldn't be beyond reproach. The book's been banned from stores in Thailand. GU says the lionization of the Thai monarchy is reaching manic proportions. Case in point: everyone wearing yellow once a week. On Monday everyone wears the king's color and they're asked to do this or even ordered by their employers. The king's sister recently died and everyone was ordered to wear black for 100 days. (Did you?) No, I didn't. even at my own father's funeral I didn't wear black and that's a personal choice. I hope that people in the US will understand this, the US was found on the principals of freedom and not being told what to do by monarchies. The situation in Thailand is almost like setting back to the era of absolute monarchy but I suspect it isn't quite like that because the people enforcing this are not in the palace but are people who are surrounding the palace. (so the military is enforcing the law and the military keeps people in line?) That's right. But it's more than that because even the elected government and opposition politicians want to use the monarchy as a way of stopping any criticism of them. (Do people disappear for having criticized the monarchy?) Fortunately that hasn't really happened in Thailand, but people are afraid to criticize because they're afraid they'll go to prison. We need to get rid of that fear and talk about things openly. (Could you say these things to your colleagues at the university, say in the cafeteria?) Yes they wouldn't be surprised, I say it to my students. Of course if I say it in the media, they wouldn't broadcast it. (Do you put yourself in trouble by saying it?) I put myself in trouble by, we can never expand the democratic state in any society unless we take risks. These risks are nothing compared to others', the risks when Thai activists take when they face the military. I feel I need to play my part.</p> | Criticizing the king in Thailand | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-02-01/criticizing-king-thailand | 2008-02-01 | 3 |
<p>LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Malik Monk had 20 points and a career-high eight rebounds, Derek Willis had 16 points and No. 13 Kentucky made 10 3-pointers in the first half to roll past Tennessee 83-58 on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Seeking to stay atop the Southeastern Conference, the Wildcats avenged last month’s 82-80 road loss to the Volunteers with their best performance in a while. Long-range shooting provided the biggest lift as Kentucky (21-5, 11-2) made 11 3s, its first double-digit effort from behind the arc in a month, as Monk and Willis each made four in the first half.</p>
<p>The Wildcats held Tennessee (14-12, 6-7) to 35 percent shooting and led by as many as 28 points in handing the Volunteers their third loss in four games.</p>
<p>De’Aaron Fox had 13 points and six assists and Bam Adebayo grabbed 12 rebounds in Kentucky’s third straight win.</p>
<p>Admiral Schofield had 17 points and Jordan Bone added 15 for Tennessee.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>No. 15 FLORIDA 114, AUBURN 95</p>
<p>AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Canyon Barry scored a season-high 30 points for Florida.</p>
<p>The Gators (21-5, 11-2 Southeastern Conference) blew past their previous scoring high of 106 points en route to a seventh straight win. They dominated after going into halftime locked in a 50-50 tie, coming out of the locker room on a 13-3 run and never looking back.</p>
<p>Florida shot 56 percent from the field and made 11 of 19 3-point attempts and 37 of 42 free throws.</p>
<p>Anfernee McLemore led Auburn (16-10, 5-8) with 19 points, T.J. Dunans had 13 and Ronnie Johnson 12.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>No. 16 PURDUE 74, RUTGERS 55</p>
<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Center Isaac Haas had 24 points and 11 rebounds, and power forward Caleb Swanigan added 12 points and 17 rebounds for Purdue.</p>
<p>Purdue (21-5, 10-3 Big Ten) led only 45-39 with just over 12:30&#160;remaining, but from the&#160;11:15&#160;mark until he left the game with&#160;2:20&#160;to play, Haas scored 16 points, and the Boilermakers pulled away for their fourth consecutive victory.</p>
<p>Nigel Johnson scored 23 points to lead Rutgers (13-14, 2-12), which had no answer for Purdue’s big men.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>No. 25 NOTRE DAME 84, BOSTON COLLEGE 76</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Bonzie Colson scored 20 points and Matt Farrell had 19 as Notre Dame overcame a 13-point first-half deficit to send Boston College to its 10th straight loss.</p>
<p>V.J. Beachem had 16 points and Steve Vasturia added 15 for the Fighting Irish (20-7, 9-5 Atlantic Coast Conference). It is coach Mike Brey’s 13th time winning at least 20 games with Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Ky Bowman led Boston College (9-18, 2-12) with 29 points and Mo Jeffers had 12.</p>
<p>BC had sliced it to 78-76 on Bowman’s two free throws with just under a minute to play, but Beachem grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on the ensuing possession. He hit both free throws with 24.1 seconds to play.</p>
<p>LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Malik Monk had 20 points and a career-high eight rebounds, Derek Willis had 16 points and No. 13 Kentucky made 10 3-pointers in the first half to roll past Tennessee 83-58 on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>Seeking to stay atop the Southeastern Conference, the Wildcats avenged last month’s 82-80 road loss to the Volunteers with their best performance in a while. Long-range shooting provided the biggest lift as Kentucky (21-5, 11-2) made 11 3s, its first double-digit effort from behind the arc in a month, as Monk and Willis each made four in the first half.</p>
<p>The Wildcats held Tennessee (14-12, 6-7) to 35 percent shooting and led by as many as 28 points in handing the Volunteers their third loss in four games.</p>
<p>De’Aaron Fox had 13 points and six assists and Bam Adebayo grabbed 12 rebounds in Kentucky’s third straight win.</p>
<p>Admiral Schofield had 17 points and Jordan Bone added 15 for Tennessee.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>No. 15 FLORIDA 114, AUBURN 95</p>
<p>AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Canyon Barry scored a season-high 30 points for Florida.</p>
<p>The Gators (21-5, 11-2 Southeastern Conference) blew past their previous scoring high of 106 points en route to a seventh straight win. They dominated after going into halftime locked in a 50-50 tie, coming out of the locker room on a 13-3 run and never looking back.</p>
<p>Florida shot 56 percent from the field and made 11 of 19 3-point attempts and 37 of 42 free throws.</p>
<p>Anfernee McLemore led Auburn (16-10, 5-8) with 19 points, T.J. Dunans had 13 and Ronnie Johnson 12.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>No. 16 PURDUE 74, RUTGERS 55</p>
<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Center Isaac Haas had 24 points and 11 rebounds, and power forward Caleb Swanigan added 12 points and 17 rebounds for Purdue.</p>
<p>Purdue (21-5, 10-3 Big Ten) led only 45-39 with just over 12:30&#160;remaining, but from the&#160;11:15&#160;mark until he left the game with&#160;2:20&#160;to play, Haas scored 16 points, and the Boilermakers pulled away for their fourth consecutive victory.</p>
<p>Nigel Johnson scored 23 points to lead Rutgers (13-14, 2-12), which had no answer for Purdue’s big men.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>No. 25 NOTRE DAME 84, BOSTON COLLEGE 76</p>
<p>BOSTON (AP) — Bonzie Colson scored 20 points and Matt Farrell had 19 as Notre Dame overcame a 13-point first-half deficit to send Boston College to its 10th straight loss.</p>
<p>V.J. Beachem had 16 points and Steve Vasturia added 15 for the Fighting Irish (20-7, 9-5 Atlantic Coast Conference). It is coach Mike Brey’s 13th time winning at least 20 games with Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Ky Bowman led Boston College (9-18, 2-12) with 29 points and Mo Jeffers had 12.</p>
<p>BC had sliced it to 78-76 on Bowman’s two free throws with just under a minute to play, but Beachem grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on the ensuing possession. He hit both free throws with 24.1 seconds to play.</p> | Top 25 Capsules | false | https://apnews.com/05a27233fdf84bc4bea2a4fff253f1c8 | 2017-02-15 | 2 |
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<p>Singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn released his memoir "Rumours of Glory" in 2014.</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. - For more than 40 years, Bruce Cockburn has done everything his way. Whether it is in his public or private life, the singer-songwriter has used his music to give a glimpse of what it's like to be him.</p>
<p>Oh, not to mention he penned his memoir "Rumours of Glory" in 2014, which gave a deeper look into his decades-long career.</p>
<p>"I've always searched and found out things for myself," he says during a recent phone interview. "I wanted to see everything firsthand. This is the way I chose to live."</p>
<p>Cockburn has created a career most would envy. He's picked up a dozen or so Juno Awards (Canada's equivalent to the Grammy Award). He's also recorded 31 albums, with his latest being "Small Source of Comfort." The album is a blend of folk, blues, jazz and rock. It was inspired by his trips around the world, including San Francisco, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Kandahar, Afghanistan.</p>
<p>"The songs are representative of what I feel," he says. "I'm impacted by everything that I get out and see. That's the best part about touring - I get to see the world."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>There are five instrumentals on the album. "Each One Lost" and "Comets of Kandahar," stem from a trip Cockburn made to war-torn Afghanistan in 2009. The elegiac "Each One Lost" was written after Cockburn witnessed a ceremony honoring two young Canadian Forces soldiers who had been killed that day and whose coffins were being flown back to Canada. He says it was "one of the saddest and most moving scenes I've been privileged to witness."</p>
<p>Cockburn will continue to write and release more music.</p>
<p>"As you go through life, it's like taking a hike alongside a river," he says. "Your eye catches little things that flash in the water, various stones and flotsam. I'm a bit of a pack rat when it comes to saving these reflections. And, occasionally, a few of them make their way into songs."</p>
<p /> | Bruce Cockburn on tour in support of 'Small Source of Comfort,' stops at the Lensic Performing Arts Center | false | https://abqjournal.com/671395/small-source-of-comfort.html | 2 |
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A series of&#160;high profile rape accusations led California lawmakers&#160;to pass new legislation designed to remove a judge’s discretion in certain cases and to lift the burden on victims to bring suit before the&#160;law allows the validity of their claims to lapse over time. But questions immediately rose as to whether the approach might have significant unintended consequences.</p>
<p>Assembly Bill 2888, passed in response to the controversy around sentencing leniency in the case of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner,&#160;bars&#160;courts “from granting probation or suspending the execution or imposition of a sentence if a person is convicted of rape” or related acts&#160;“if the victim was either unconscious or incapable of giving consent due to intoxication,” <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2888" type="external">according</a> to the legislative counsel’s digest. “Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail (that the law only required him to serve three of with good behavior, which was exactly what happened), three years of probation, and a sex offender management program,” as Bridgette Dunlap, a California women’s rights attorney,&#160; <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/how-californias-new-rape-law-could-be-a-step-backward-w437373" type="external">recalled</a>&#160;in Rolling Stone.&#160;“He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.”</p>
<p>But as Dunlap observed, AB2888 was written in a way that could worsen the pronounced disadvantage that some defendants already suffer in court. While Turner was able to avail himself of a robust defense, the bill passed in response to Judge Aaron Persky’s exercise of discretion “will inevitably have a disproportionate impact on the same people mandatory minimum laws generally do — poor people of color,” Dunlap suggested. “The likely consequences of this kind of tough-on-crime response to a high profile case seen as a symbol of a larger problem should concern two groups in particular: Californians and feminists.”</p>
<p>The dilemma playing out, especially on the political left, raised questions as to how Gov. Jerry Brown, famous for reigning in some of Sacramento’s hastier actions, would react. “A spokesman for the governor declined on Tuesday to comment on his plans for the bill, adding that Mr. Brown has until the end of September to sign or veto it,” the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/us/as-brock-turner-is-set-to-be-freed-friday-california-bill-aims-for-harsher-penalties-for-sexual-assault.html?_r=0" type="external">reported</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>“That Legislature’s action came less than a week after the Santa Clara County Superior Court announced that Judge Persky&#160;would stop hearing criminal cases&#160;and handle civil cases instead, effective Sept. 6. He had asked for the transfer, the court’s presiding judge said. Now, Judge Persky is in a battle to retain his position. A petition seeking hearings to impeach him has collected 1.3 million signatures since it was started three months. The movement to remove him has also raised more than $250,000.”</p>
<p>At the same time, Brown must pass judgment on&#160;a second piece of rape-related legislation. The governor, “who has vetoed bills to extend legal deadlines for filing lawsuits over child sex abuse, must now decide whether to abolish time limits for charging someone with rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, oral copulation, and continuous sex abuse of a child,” <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-sex-crimes-law-20160901-snap-story.html" type="external">according</a> to the Los Angeles Times. “Most of the crimes now carry a 10-year statute of limitation.”&#160;The bill making those changes was passed in response to the allegations of rape and sexual assault directed at Bill Cosby by dozens of women over a period of decades.</p>
<p>“Under the state’s current law, rape and felony sex crimes must be tried within 10 years, unless DNA evidence comes to light after that time period,” as New York Magazine <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/08/california-removes-time-limit-on-rape-cases.html" type="external">noted</a>. “And sex crimes against children younger than 18 must be prosecuted before the victim turns 40. Cosby stands accused of assaulting more than&#160;35 women&#160;in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, but in several of their cases, the statue of limitations has expired.”</p> | Two bills targeting rape pass Legislature, head to Gov. Brown’s desk | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2016/09/07/two-bills-targeting-rape-pass-legislature-head-gov-browns-desk/ | 2018-09-20 | 3 |
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<p>The case took an intriguing turn when a veteran county prosecutor became the first authority to publicly name a suspect in at least one of the deaths: John Bittrolff, a Long Island carpenter who was sentenced to consecutive 25 years-to-life terms in prison this week for beating two prostitutes to death in 1993 and 1994.</p>
<p>Robert Biancavilla, an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, said after the sentencing that some of the remains found near Gilgo Beach “may be attributed to the handiwork of Mr. Bittrolff.”</p>
<p>If authorities have evidence to back up their suspicions, though, they aren’t saying.</p>
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<p>Biancavilla declined to elaborate. Suffolk County police officials declined to comment. They last spoke publicly about the case nearly two years ago when they announced detectives were working with FBI profilers on developing leads.</p>
<p>Any suggestion that Bittrolff had anything to do with the dead women is “laughable,” said his lawyer, Jonathan Manley.</p>
<p>Even a lawyer for the family of one of those linked to the case expressed skepticism.</p>
<p>“To stir this pot when there’s no evidence is looking to easily blame a convicted killer and not have to perform the investigation that is required,” said John Ray, an attorney for the family of Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance in 2010 several miles from Gilgo Beach triggered the hunt that exposed the larger mystery.</p>
<p>Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished in spring 2010 after leaving a client’s house on foot and disappearing into the marsh.</p>
<p>Months later, a police officer and his cadaver dog were looking for her body in the thicket along Ocean Parkway when they happened upon the remains of a different woman. Within days, three other bodies were found, all within a short walk of one another.</p>
<p>By spring 2011, that number had climbed to 10 sets of human remains — those of eight women, one man and one toddler — all found along several miles of parkway. Some remains were later linked to dismembered body parts found elsewhere on Long Island, making for a puzzling crime scene that stretched from a park near the New York City limits to a resort community on Fire Island and out to far eastern Long Island.</p>
<p>Police found the skull of a prostitute named Jessica Taylor, who was 20 when most of the rest of her body was found in a wooded area of Manorville shortly after she disappeared in 2003. Body parts found on Gilgo Beach were also linked to another corpse found in Manorville in 2000. That female victim has never been identified.</p>
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<p>Gilbert’s body was found in the marsh in the community of Oak Beach in December 2011, about 3 miles east of where the other 10 sets were discovered.</p>
<p>Police have long maintained that Gilbert’s death was accidental. They say she drowned in a drug-induced haze after wandering into the wetland, but her relatives have long disputed that determination. In one of the more unusual twists in the saga, Gilbert’s mother, Mari, was murdered last year by another daughter in her upstate New York home.</p>
<p>Bittrolff was arrested in 2014 in an unrelated investigation involving the deaths of two prostitutes left in wooded areas of eastern Long Island two decades ago. The nude bodies of Rita Tangredi, 31, and Colleen McNamee, 20, were found 9 miles (14 kilometers) apart in late 1993 and early 1994. Both women had been strangled and suffered severe head injuries.</p>
<p>Bittrolff, 51, was convicted after investigators linked his DNA to substances found on the women’s bodies. He denies killing the women and intends to appeal.</p>
<p>Before he was jailed, Bittrolff lived in Manorville, part of the vast Long Island pine barrens region and the same hamlet where Taylor’s corpse and the body of one other woman were found.</p>
<p>John Ray, the Gilbert family lawyer, discounted any significance to the fact that Bittrolff lived there.</p>
<p>“Manorville is a huge, forested area; I don’t think that makes it much of a connection. Manorville just happens to be a great place to leave bodies,” he said, agreeing that the same could be said for Ocean Parkway.</p>
<p>In talking about the bodies near Gilgo Beach, investigators have said several times over the years it is unlikely one person killed all the victims.</p>
<p>Joseph Pollini, a retired New York City police detective who investigated cold case homicides and now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he found it hard to believe a prosecutor would publicly connect Bittrolff to the Gilgo Beach investigation on mere speculation.</p>
<p>“It’s highly unlikely a district attorney would put his neck out on a limb like that if he didn’t have something to back it up,” he said.</p> | Prosecutor renews interest in Long Island serial killer case | false | https://abqjournal.com/1064740/prosecutor-renews-interest-in-long-island-serial-killer-case.html | 2017-09-16 | 2 |
<p>The latest GOP debate was thin on memorable moments or major factual bloopers, but we do have some leftover claims to dispute before we shut down for the Thanksgiving holiday. We wouldn’t want anybody’s turkey dinner to be spoiled by worries that terrorists have come over the border with Mexico, for example. We also found misstatements about an oil pipeline, presidential contacts with Iran and cuts to the defense budget.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1111/22/se.06.html" type="external">two-hour debate</a> was held in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 22 and was televised on CNN. It focused on national security. The usual eight Republican presidential candidates participated.</p>
<p>Terrorists from South of the Border</p>
<p>Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain overstated the entry of terrorists into the U.S. through the border with Mexico.</p>
<p>Cain: Number one, we know that terrorists have come into this country by way of Mexico.</p>
<p>Actually, there’s no evidence of terrorists entering the country through Mexico. U.S. officials have certainly expressed concern about terrorists, or those with terrorist ties, using the U.S.-Mexico border to gain entry to the United States, but, according to a <a href="http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/03/terrorism-threat-on-mexican-border-reality-or-political-scare-tactics/" type="external">Houston Chronicle investigation</a>published in March, no suspect has been charged with a terrorist-related crime.</p>
<p>Houston Chronicle, March 28: An independent analysis by Vanderbilt political science and law professor Carol M. Swain and Saurabh Sharad found a 67 percent increase in the number of arrests of border crossers from suspect nations — up from 213 in 2000 to 355 in 2009.</p>
<p>Yet none of these suspects has faced terror-related charges or carried out a terrorist act, according to senior federal law enforcement officials who have checked government records. …</p>
<p>“I’m not aware that anyone who has committed a terrorist act in the United States had crossed the southwest border,” a senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the Houston Chronicle, speaking on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Also, the Department of Homeland Security has said that the bigger threat is along the northern border with Canada.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1197.pdf" type="external">Government Accountability Office report, December 2010</a>: Historically, the United States has focused attention and resources primarily on the U.S. border with Mexico, which continues to experience significantly higher levels of drug trafficking and illegal immigration than the U.S.-Canadian border. However, DHS reports that the terrorist threat on the northern border is higher, given the large expanse of area with limited law enforcement coverage. There is also a great deal of trade and travel across this border, and while legal trade is predominant, DHS reports networks of illicit criminal activity and smuggling of drugs, currency, people, and weapons between the two countries.</p>
<p>Cain would have been correct to say that there is great concern about terrorists possibly using the Mexican border to gain entry, or recruiting accomplices from countries south of the border. An Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-iran-tied-terror-plot-washington-dc-disrupted/story?id=14711933#.Ts0Js1bNmCc" type="external">was foiled this fall</a> after the Iranian-American, and Texas resident, involved in the scheme asked a person he thought to be a member of a Mexican drug cartel to help with the assassination. The supposed cartel member was an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.</p>
<p>Also, a controversial Muslim cleric <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/27/local/la-me-border-cleric-20110127" type="external">was arrested in January</a> while trying to sneak into California in the trunk of a car. The cleric – who once led a Muslim congregation in Montreal – had been deported from Canada to his home country of Tunisia three years earlier.</p>
<p>Bachmann on Pipeline</p>
<p>Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota got it wrong when she said President Obama had “canceled” an oil pipeline from Canada.</p>
<p>Bachmann: [E]nergy independence is something that President Obama certainly has avoided. … [A]lmost every decision that the president has made since he came in has been one to put the United States in a position of unilateral disarmament including the most recent decision he made to cancel the Keystone Pipeline.</p>
<p>In fact, the Keystone XL Pipeline extension has been delayed, not canceled.</p>
<p>The president issued a <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/11/10/statement-president-state-departments-keystone-xl-pipeline-announcement" type="external">statement supporting</a>the delay, which <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/11/176964.htm" type="external">the State Department announced</a> Nov. 10, citing the need for an “in-depth assessment of potential alternative routes in Nebraska.” On Nov. 14 <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-15/news/30404084_1_keystone-xl-transcanada-pipeline" type="external">the developer announced</a> it would change the route of the pipeline to avoid Nebraska’s sensitive Sandhills area, and said it was confident the project would ultimately be approved. On Nov. 15, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (a Republican) <a href="http://www.governor.nebraska.gov/news/2011/11/15_pipline.html" type="external">praised the State Department’s action</a> and called the re-routing a “common sense solution.” And on Nov. 22 — just hours before Bachmann spoke — the governor signed two bills that <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/us-oil-pipeline-nebraska-idUSTRE7AL1M120111122" type="external">enacted a compromise agreed upon with the pipeline builder</a> to move the route, and approved up to $2 million in state funding for an environmental study.</p>
<p>Bachmann on Obama Meeting with Iran</p>
<p>Bachmann got it wrong again when she claimed that the president met with Iranian officials.</p>
<p>Bachmann: President Obama has — has failed the American people because for two and a half years he gave the Iran the luxury of time.</p>
<p>He met with them with no preconditions. It’s the doctrine of appeasement.</p>
<p>It’s true that the administration has had <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/31/iran-offers-help-afghanistan/?page=all" type="external">diplomatic contacts</a> with Iran, to be sure. And during the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4896002&amp;page=1#.Ts0JAfLNmDQ" type="external">Obama said he would meet</a> with leaders of Iran and other hostile nations “without preconditions” during his first year in office, a position he later fudged. But the fact is he has yet to meet with Iranian officials, with or without conditions.</p>
<p>Bachmann knows this perfectly well, as <a href="http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/17/bachmann-obama-has-politics-over-security/" type="external">she acknowledged</a> to the editorial board of the Des Moines Register on Nov. 16, when she corrected herself after making the claim that the president had met personally with Iranians. She said: “It was naive at best and deadly foolish at worst for the president to meet with Iran with no pre-conditions. That was unprecedented.” Then a moment later (at 22:55 on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4lTYbJ_WhU&amp;feature=player_embedded#!" type="external">digital recording</a>), she said, “So the president sat down and met with them, or I should say, the administration met with them.” And that’s indeed what she should have said, then and at the Nov. 22 debate, if she wanted to be truthful.</p>
<p>Romney on Defense Cuts</p>
<p>Mitt Romney mistakenly attributed a decision to halt production of F-22 fighter jets to an unrelated debt ceiling deal reached last summer that cut $350 billion from the defense budget. The decision on F-22s was made back in the summer of 2009.</p>
<p>Romney: Let’s just talk about what they’re cutting with the first $350 billion, not the next 600 which is coming down the road. The first $350 billion, what do they cut? They stopped the F-22. They delayed aircraft carriers. They stopped the Navy cruiser system. They said long range Air Force bombers aren’t going to be built. They’re trying to cut our troops by 50,000. The list goes on. They’re cutting programs that are cutting the capacity of America to defend itself.</p>
<p>By way of background, the initial debt ceiling deal reached this summer by Congress — and signed by Obama — included <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheet-victory-bipartisan-compromise-economy-american-people" type="external">an agreement</a>to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion over the next 10 years, with about <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-usa-pentagon-panetta-idUSTRE77368Z20110804" type="external">$350 billion</a> of those cuts coming from the Pentagon.</p>
<p>The supercommittee this week failed to reach a compromise on how to cut the federal budget by an additional $1.5 trillion, triggering <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/usa-debt-defense-panetta-idUSN1E7AK2C620111122" type="external">another $600 billion</a>in defense cuts over the next decade (which may or may not actually happen).</p>
<p>But Romney was talking about that first $350 billion. The former Massachusetts governor spoke definitively about where those cuts would come from, but the Pentagon will ultimately decide where the cuts will be made. And those decisions have not yet been reached.</p>
<p>According to an Aug. 4 story in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/us/05military.html" type="external">New York Times</a>, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “declined to say where about $350 billion in defense budget cuts over the next 10 years would come from. But defense officials say there could be reductions in major weapons programs, cuts in the size of the armed forces, and increased premiums for the military’s health care system, Tricare.”</p>
<p>Panetta more recently warned that the additional cuts triggered by the supercommittee’s failure “would have devastating effects on our national defense.”</p>
<p>This week, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/us/despite-threat-of-cuts-pentagon-made-no-contingency-plans.html?_r=1" type="external">New York Times</a>spoke to defense analysts about where the additional $600 billion in cuts might come from:</p>
<p>New York Times, Nov. 22: &#160;They laid out the possibility of cutbacks to most weapons programs, a further reduction in the size of the Army, large layoffs among the Defense Department’s 700,000 civilian employees and reduced military training time — such as on aircraft like the F-22 advanced jet fighter, which flies at Mach 2 and costs $18,000 an hour to operate, mostly because of the price of fuel.</p>
<p>Other possibilities include cutting the number of aircraft carriers to 10 from 11 — the United States still has more than any other country — as well as increased fees for the military’s generous health care system, changes in military retirement, base closings around the country and delayed maintenance on ships and buildings.</p>
<p>But again, those were possibilities discussed for the additional $600 billion in defense cuts.</p>
<p>Moreover, the initial $350 billion in cuts had nothing to do with the decision to halt production of F-22s. The Times story raises the possibility of less training time using existing F-22s, but the decision to halt production of additional F-22s was <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/22/president_wins_on_defense_spending/" type="external">an independent decision</a>signed off on by the Senate — at the urging of Obama and then Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates — in the summer of 2009, two full years before the debt ceiling agreement. So Romney was wrong that the administration “stopped the F-22” as a result of the initial $350 billion in cuts.</p>
<p>— Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson and Robert Farley</p> | Pre-Thanksgiving Leftovers | false | https://factcheck.org/2011/11/pre-thanksgiving-leftovers/ | 2011-11-23 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Article created by <a href="www.fpif.org" type="external">Foreign Policy in Focus</a>.</p>
<p>Somalia today is very much like Afghanistan was in 1996. In the wake of years of civil war, chaotic rule by warlords, and the death and displacement of countless Muslims, a ragtag Islamic militia has moved in to take control of much of Somalia.</p>
<p>After running off some prominent warlords from their entrenched strongholds, the Islamic militia has sought to establish and expand its writ and has threatened to dislodge an internationally backed transitional government made up of veteran warlords with limited authority. Businessmen, clan leaders, and the general public, having tired of seemingly interminable factional violence and lawlessness, have lent support to the al-Qaida-aligned, fiercely anti-American Islamic militia, which draws legitimacy from its plans to restore peace and order. The militia has purported to do so by enforcing a court system based on an ultra-orthodox version of the Sharia (Islamic law) and tribal social norms.</p>
<p>The parallels between the predicaments of Somalia today and Afghanistan in 1996 are striking. Unless neighboring countries and the international community take this “Afghanistan” scenario seriously, Somalia will become the next frontier of jihadi Islam. Unless the United States changes its policy of funding an anti-terrorism alliance of Somali warlords, it will face a second Taliban. And unless Ethiopia rethinks its July 20 military intervention to prop up the transitional government against the Islamic Courts, Sunni Muslim sentiment in Somalia will turn even more radical.</p>
<p>Many analysts underestimate or simply dismiss the potential of Somalia becoming the Afghanistan of Africa. The Somali tradition of “religious moderation and tolerance” is cited as a deterrent to a Taliban-like, medieval administration that could destabilize the region and provide support for militant Islamic movements worldwide . For instance, in his July 11 <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&amp;y=2006&amp;m=July&amp;x=200607121215111EJrehsiF0.2149317" type="external">testimony</a> before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn noted that the rise of Islamic militias “does not mean, however, that Somalia is likely to become a major al-Qaida base or that it is headed toward a Taliban form of government. The vast majority of Somalis follow a moderate form of Islam and they are highly suspicious of foreign influence.”</p>
<p>An International Crisis Group <a href="http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3830" type="external">report</a> says that “Somalis in general show little interest in jihadi Islamism; most are deeply opposed. Somali militant movements have failed to gain broad popular support, encountering instead widespread hostility. The most remarkable feature is that Islamist militancy has not become more firmly rooted in what should, by most conventional assessments, be fertile ground.”</p>
<p>Still others point to the diversity of Somalia. The Islamic courts, Somalia observers say, have yet to venture into areas outside the Hawiye belt and, even within this clan, ideological and intra-clan differences are sharp. Some of the Islamic courts and Islamic leaders are seen to be more moderate than others. It remains to be seen if their radical Islamic rhetoric can keep the disparate Union of Islamic Courts united. Conventional Somali wisdom says clan affiliation comes before anything else.</p>
<p>Yet a look at Somalia’s recent history, the events of the past few months, and the geo-strategic context in which the Islamic courts have gained ground all point to a more ominous future.</p>
<p>Since the fall of General Siyaad Barre’s military regime in 1991, Somalia has been at war with itself, fragmented and carved up by warlords and clan-based militias, and without central rule. No less than fourteen attempts to restore statehood through internationally brokered national governments have failed to bring order or stem the violence. The Barre government had suppressed the Islamic movements of all hues for over twenty years. In the political vacuum and power struggle that ensued after Barre’s fall, militant Islamic movements resurfaced with a vengeance, working on all fronts ranging from commerce to the judiciary. Islamic leaders had first earned legitimacy by assuming and effectively administering court functions in lawless areas in the greater Mogadishu region. These clan-based courts also kept militias and have since been major players in internecine fighting.</p>
<p>After a successful campaign earlier this year against the pro-U.S. warlords in the capital city, militias of the Islamic Courts now have direct control of Mogadishu’s sixteen districts and three other strategic regions in Somalia’s heartland and are looking to forge alliances in others. New Islamic courts are being established in areas under the nominal control of the internationally backed transitional government. The government’s own militiamen are joining the courts—as they did recently in Buur Hakaba, in the Bey region. Despite inner wrangling for power, the Union of Islamic Courts has made a bid to speak with one voice to the international community and in negotiations with the warlord-led transitional government. In terms of manpower and weaponry the militias are as formidable as any other factional force in the country. And unlike the warlords, the Islamic militia seems to enjoy popular legitimacy. In addition to offering the prospect of peace after relentless bloodshed, the Islamic movement derives much of its legitimacy from its anti-American stance. Like the Taliban, the tone and tenor of the victorious Islamic Courts in Mogadishu evince a religious self-righteousness that, when translated into political power, will have implications far beyond the immediate local Somali context.</p>
<p>In his first interview after taking over Mogadishu, Shaykh Sharif Ahmed, one of the founding leaders of the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, told the UN news agency IRIN: “ I think it is the American government that is against the Somali people. It is they who attacked the Somali people. It is the U.S. government that gave a lot of money to fund the faction leaders … We believe that the American government was responsible for the fighting. It is the Americans who are against the Somali people. We are not against them.” Al-Qaida, court leaders say, is a figment of the American imagination.</p>
<p>However, in areas already under the Islamic Courts’ control, a process of consolidation of power is underway. Sharia laws and a Taliban-like code of public behavior are in force. Although almost all Somalis follow the more tolerant versions of Shaf’i school of thought, the surging Islamic movement in Somalia is a departure from the traditional structures of religion. Rather than being introverted and beholden to traditions, the movement is inspired by radical modern thinkers likes Syed Qutab of Egypt and Maududi of Pakistan, both of whom had envisioned Sharia-based societies.</p>
<p>To complement the power of the Islamic courts there has been a phenomenal growth of charities, NGOs, and businesses with radical religious credentials. Islamic schools, where traditional religious texts and scriptures form the educational core, have filled the vacuum created by the devastation of the school system. Islamic movements dominate most of the universities and educational institutions. More than 300 Quranic schools in Somalia prepare indoctrinated clerics. Segregation of women, symbolized by the sweeping spread of the veil and the forceful advocacy of the Islamic code of conduct on modesty, seem irreversible trends. Many Somalis see it as an Islamic revolution that has been brewing for decades and has already Islamicized the culture and education system of Somalia.</p>
<p>The perceptions of a moderate, tolerant Islam in Somalia are far removed from a present reality shaped by internecine violence and the post-September 11 international environment. America’s insistence on the al-Qaida connection may not be misplaced. Somalia could well be a refuge for some suspects in the Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam bombings. Hasan Daher Aweys, the new leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, is on America’s list of supporters of terrorism. Osama bin Laden, too, has claimed to have worked in tandem with the Somali militants. Like the Taliban toward Osama bin Laden, Mogadishu’s Islamic courts also argue that any terrorist suspects in Somalia should be tried by local courts rather than extradited to other countries . And al-Qaida is certainly not a prime concern for the Somalis who seem willing to tolerate and even back a union of militant clerics in return for a semblance of stability and normalcy. For the people of Mogadishu and other regions, the terrorists they have known over the last decade and a half are the factional warlords and their forces from whom they have gained respite due to the Islamic courts. So far, other than the cornered warlords, public resistance to the rise of the Islamic courts has been conspicuous by its absence.</p>
<p>Direct and indirect involvement of regional actors in Somalia’s civil war is another complication it shares with Afghanistan. The emergent power and popularity of the Islamic courts has evoked a hostile response from its neighbors, many of which have sizeable Muslim minorities. Ethiopia, a longstanding supporter of Abdullahi Yusuf, a warlord now leading the shaky transitional government in Bidoa, is wary of an Islamic administration in Mogadishu. Ethiopian worries are rooted in its troubled “Fifth Zone,” a Somali-dominated Muslim region whose separatist movement has old ties with Somali Islamic movements. Ethiopian forces have conducted exercises on and, at times, inside the Somali border.</p>
<p>As Islamic leaders started to establish new courts in towns close to Bidoa, Ethiopian troops took over the town on July 20 to save the besieged transitional government. Ethiopia’s military intervention then extended to the town of Wajid a few days later, and the people of Mogadishu were up in protest. A rally on July 22 to denounce Ethiopia captured the prevalent mood among Somali Muslims. The breakdown of Arab League-sponsored Khartoum talks and rigid policy positions of all sides make war a likely outcome of this standoff, unless Ethiopia withdraws its troops. The wave of radicalism among Somali Muslims will only gather force as the sentiment against foreign military intervention rises.</p>
<p>Kenya, burdened by more than 50,000 refugees, also has cause for concern. More bloodshed and violence, a likely outcome of the Islamic courts’ ascendancy, will increase the flow of people across the border. The strong suspicion that al-Qaida fugitives implicated in the American embassy bombing of 2002 and other acts of terrorism in Kenya are in Somalia reinforces the perception of threat. Moreover, Kenya was a key actor in setting up the transitional government that the Islamic courts now threaten.</p>
<p>The Islamic-minded government in Khartoum, on the other hand, has on a number of occasions in the 1990s tried to unify the disparate religious movements of Somalia to form an Islamic emirate. After the Islamic courts took over Mogadishu in June 2006, Sudan also facilitated an agreement between the Islamic militia and the transitional government. With the Ethiopian military propping up its client warlord and by extension the transitional government, the agreement increasingly seems to be in jeopardy.</p>
<p>To add to this complex, volatile, but clearly drawn-out regional scenario, U.S.-led coalition forces are anchored in Red Sea waters off Somalia, for the purpose of blocking off international Islamic networks’ support systems. Though formally disengaged from the Somali conflict since the Black Hawk Down episode in 1993, the United States has been siding with the rivals of the Islamic militias—a policy pursued with more vigor since September 11. The rise of Islamic extremism in Somalia is a direct consequence of the desultory conduct of America’s war on terrorism and its Somalia policy over the last two decades. In fact, the failed American attempt to influence the outcome of the civil war by funding an anti-terrorism alliance of unpopular warlords has left the Bush administration’s ideological Somalia policy in shreds and further tarnished the U.S. image in Somalia. Washington insists on pursuing a multilateral process of negotiations and supporting the anti-Islamist transitional government. Realities in Somalia are changing but the American policy, defined by its anti-terrorism zeal and its antipathy to anything Islamic, will ultimately lead to a wider regional conflict, and perhaps at some later stage, direct confrontation. The nascent Supreme Council of the Islamic Courts is therefore under severe constraints in terms of expanding its initial gains to the rest of Somalia.</p>
<p>Diplomatically Washington prefers engagement through the Somalia Contact Group, which also includes Norway, Britain, Sweden, Italy, Tanzania, and the European Union. (The African Union, the Arab League, a group of East African countries, and the United Nations have observer status.) The contact group supports the transitional government as “the legitimate framework for continued dialogue and the reestablishment of governance in Somalia leading to a successful transition to an elected, representative government at the end of the transitional period in 2009,” according to its July 18, 2006 joint communiqué. Given the pace of events, this attempt to artificially prop up transitional institutions will soon be redundant and already seems out of touch with ground realities in Somalia. Persisting with its policy of funding and openly backing discredited warlords has been and will remain counterproductive for the United States. At the same time, an aversion to Islamic rule and the terrorism connection will make it hard for the United States and the Contact Group in general to continue to accept the Islamic courts’ rule in Mogadishu and its expansion. Proxy wars, regional military conflicts, and a new pattern of Somalia’s fragmentation are in the cards.</p>
<p>However moderate and tolerant Somali Islam might have been in the past, the future bodes ill for Somalia. It might eventually be irrelevant whether or not the Islamic forces succeed in setting up something resembling a nationwide state structure in Somalia. All over the Muslim world, militant Sharia movements have proved that they do not necessarily require formal state structures to recruit populations for militant causes and entrench themselves in society.</p>
<p>Again, the Taliban are a prime example. Since the defeat of the Taliban government in late 2001, the movement has gained new momentum and continues to inflict heavy damage. The Taliban ideology has virtually taken over the tribal areas of Pakistan and remains as potent within Afghanistan as ever. The Islamic courts of Somalia and the ideology they espouse are also here to stay. They have deepened the fissures within the larger Somali society, sharpened conflicts with regional powers, and stoutly defied America’s war on terrorism. With them a new era of jihadi Islam and violent confrontation in the horn of Africa has set in.</p>
<p>“ Let what is on this side of the bank be washed out by the flood,” says the Somalia proverb, “and what is on that side of the bank carried away by the wind.” Caught between Islamic Courts on the one hand and the Ethiopian military on the other, Somalia indeed faces the twin plagues of flood and wind.</p>
<p /> | A New Frontier of Jihadi Islam? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/07/new-frontier-jihadi-islam/ | 2006-07-26 | 4 |
<p>Missouri's tax collection agency soon will need to notify affected businesses when there are changes in sales tax policy once a bill signed Monday by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon takes effect.</p>
<p>Bill sponsor and Lee's Summit Republican Sen. Will Kraus, who is running for secretary of state in 2016, said the measure will end what he called notification by audit.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kraus said business owners have complained that the Department of Revenue or courts sometimes change policy on items for which sales tax should be charged. Some owners, Kraus said, are not aware of changes in tax collection until they are audited and could owe a substantial amount of money in back taxes.</p>
<p>"Based on conversations I've had with citizens and business owners throughout the state, the Department of Revenue is not being fair or consistent in enforcing tax laws," Kraus said in a statement. He said the bill is needed to hold the department accountable.</p>
<p>The proposal is backed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has cited similar concerns from businesses. President and CEO Dan Mehan said some have contemplated closing because of violations to new sales tax policies.</p>
<p>The bill signed by Nixon will require the agency to contact all business owners who could be affected by a change in sales tax law interpretation made by the department's director, the state's administrative tribunal or a judge.</p>
<p>If businesses are not informed about changes in sales tax collections, they won't be responsible for unpaid taxes.</p>
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<p>The Department of Revenue had raised concerns about anticipated costs associated with a similar measure passed by the General Assembly last year.</p>
<p>Nixon vetoed that bill. The Department of Revenue had estimated it could cost the state more than $100 million in lost revenue in any given fiscal year, including about $71 million in general revenue. Lawmakers have disputed that.</p>
<p>Legislative researchers estimated this year's proposal will cost a net of less than $425,394 in general revenue this fiscal year.</p>
<p>Department of Revenue spokeswoman Michelle Gleba said in an email that the only costs associated with the measure now will be for postage to notify businesses and the salary for an additional full-time employee.</p>
<p>Lawmakers tweaked the proposal to require notification only if a "reasonable person" would not have expected changes in sales tax based on prior laws or regulations. The measure also allows the agency to inform businesses via mail, email or a secure electronic communication.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Nixon did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday. In a statement, Nixon called the proposal "fiscally responsible" and "business friendly." He said it will "ensure affected businesses are given adequate notice when tax laws change."</p>
<p>The measure will take effect Aug. 28.</p>
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<p>The tax notification bill is SB 18.</p> | Nixon signs Missouri bill to require business notification of changes in state tax policy | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/06/nixon-signs-missouri-bill-to-require-business-notification-changes-in-state-tax.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
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<p>Daily deals website Groupon Inc will list its shares on the <a href="" type="internal">Nasdaq</a>, two sources familiar with the situation said.</p>
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<p>The information is not public and the sources declined to be named. The Nasdaq and the <a href="" type="internal">New York Stock Exchange</a> declined comment.</p>
<p>Groupon has filed to list its shares under the ticker symbol "GRPN" but has not yet disclosed which exchange it has selected.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)</p> | Groupon to List Shares on Nasdaq: Report | true | http://foxbusiness.com/2011/10/20/groupon-to-list-shares-on-nasdaq-sources.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>Voters may not want to wait until Election Day to submit mail-in votes. Absentee ballots make your vote count and ensure everyone eligible can participate in the election, and it is&#160;recommended that those ballots be turned in by November 1. Mail-in votes require processing time and may not be counted until the official canvassing is done.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.countyofkings.com/acr/elections/Old%20Pages/faqs.htm" type="external">Official canvassing</a> is:</p>
<p>&#160;The law that allows 28 days after the election to complete the ballot tally and the official audit of the election. When the Canvass is completed, the official results are certified.</p>
<p>It is crucial to turn in your mail-in vote prior to election day:</p>
<p>Some absentee voters wait until the last minute to make their voting choices and then drop off their absentee ballots at a polling place on election day. We make a concerted effort to pick up and pre-process absentee and provisional ballots throughout the election day, however many of these ballots are dropped off too late for pre-processing and may not be counted until several days after the election.</p>
<p>Pre-processing includes verifying the voter’s signature. This must be completed before opening and counting the mail-in ballot. According the office of California’s&#160; <a href="http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_oc.htm" type="external">Secretary of State</a>:</p>
<p>Once verified, the ballot is added to the official count. These ballots added to the vote-by-mail ballots not processed on election night can number 500,000 to over 1,000,000.</p>
<p>To be counted, your mail-in ballot must be turned in before 8:00 pm of election day. Tallying of mail-in votes begin 7 days before election day. Those tallies count toward semi-official canvassing, which are the results seen on election night.</p>
<p>The deadline to register to vote was midnight on October 22nd. However, if you’re a registered voter, you can apply to vote-by-mail until October 30.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/hist_absentee.htm" type="external">2010 California midterm election</a>, 48.4 percent of votes casted were mail-in ballots. In the 2012 June primary, 65.2 percent of votes were mail-in ballots. Given the overwhelming percentage of votes coming from absentee ballots, it’s important to make sure all votes are counted by election day.</p> | Absentee Ballots: Make Your Vote Count | false | https://ivn.us/2012/10/24/absentee-ballots-make-your-vote-count/ | 2012-10-24 | 2 |
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<p>FILE - In this Nov. 24, 2008 file photo, musician Scott Weiland poses before signing copies of his new CD, "Happy in Galoshes," in Los Angeles. Authorities say, Friday, Dec. 18, 2015, that the former Stone Temple Pilots frontman died of a toxic mix of drugs, which included cocaine. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</p>
<p>MINNEAPOLIS - Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland died of a toxic mix of drugs that included cocaine, according to a medical examiner's office in Minnesota where he was found dead on his tour bus in early December.</p>
<p>The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that the 48-year-old Weiland had cocaine, ethanol and the amphetamine MDA in his system. The medical examiner also noted a history of cardiovascular disease, asthma and multi-substance dependence.</p>
<p>Weiland's body was found on his tour bus in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington on Dec. 3. The report said the time of death was 8:27 p.m. and that the death was accidental.</p>
<p>Weiland's three-decade career in music also included solo albums and a spot in the supergroup Velvet Revolver.</p>
<p>He rose to fame with Stone Temple Pilots, which became one of the most commercially successful bands to come out of the early 1990s grunge rock movement. The band's 1992 debut album, "Core," sold 8 million units. Stone Temple Pilots broke up in 2003, and Weiland went on to front Velvet Revolver, alongside rock luminaries Slash, Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan of Guns N? Roses and Dave Kushner of Wasted Youth.</p>
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<p>The Stone Temple Pilots reunited in 2008 and split again in 2013.</p>
<p>Weiland's current band, Scott Weiland &amp; the Wildabouts, had been scheduled to play a show in Medina, Minnesota, on Dec. 3, but it had been canceled a week earlier due to poor ticket sales.</p>
<p>Police said they found a small amount of cocaine in Weiland's bedroom and elsewhere on the tour bus, and briefly held a California man who was traveling with Weiland. But Bloomington Deputy Police Chief Mike Hartley said authorities won't pursue a drug charge against the man because it would be too difficult to prove the drugs belonged to him.</p>
<p>Weiland had a long string of drug- and alcohol-related arrests and stints in rehab. In 1995, he was arrested after deputies found him carrying crack and heroin. He pleaded guilty to felony heroin possession in 1998. And his arrests for drug possession and stints in rehab led the Stone Temple Pilots to cancel tour dates and contributed to their 2003 breakup.</p> | Medical examiner: Scott Weiland died from toxic mix of drugs | false | https://abqjournal.com/693331/medical-examiner-scott-weiland-died-from-toxic-mix-of-drugs.html | 2 |
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<p>LONDON — Jimmy Choo didn’t look too sexy to the City.</p>
<p>Britain’s finance center in the city of London yawned Friday with the stock market flotation of the luxe stiletto maker. Conditional trading began at 140 pence per share, valuing the business at about 546.6 million pounds ($874 million), though the price inched up later. The valuation was at the low end of previous guidance.</p>
<p>The stock offering comes despite jitters in global markets that have prompted some companies, like Virgin Money, to postpone their initial public offerings.</p>
<p>Jimmy Choo recorded sales of 282 million pounds ($462 million) in 2013 and wants to grow in Asia.</p>
<p>The company’s high heels have many famous fans. Among them was Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw in the television show, “Sex and the City.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | A flat stock market debut for Jimmy Choo | false | https://abqjournal.com/481762/a-flat-stock-market-debut-for-jimmy-choo.html | 2 |
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<p>An American war on Iraq now seems certain. Even if Saddam Hussein agrees to step down and go into exile, it is not clear that Washington would forgo the occupation of Iraq and the installation of an American military government. Wilsonianism is in full flower, in what is likely to prove a false spring.</p>
<p>As we watch events unfold, it may be useful to keep two points in mind. First, the center of gravity of this war — the place or places where a decision is likely to occur — are not in Iraq. As is also true of the war in Afghanistan, the centers of gravity of a war with Iraq are in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Of these three, Pakistan is the most important.</p>
<p>Strategically, Iraq is not a key to very much. One might argue that as Iraq goes, so goes Syria, but that is not saying a lot. Iraq is not a key to Iran; on the contrary, their rivalry goes back centuries. All Iraq means to Turkey is an increased threat of an independent Kurdish state and maybe a chance to grab Iraq’s northern oil fields. The notion that an American-conquered Iraq can blossom into a Swiss-style democracy that will remake the Middle East comes from Cloud Coockoo Land. If you want to see what democracy in that region would really mean for American interests, look at the Turkish parliament’s vote this weekend against allowing U.S. forces to invade Iraq from Turkey.</p>
<p>Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in contrast, are keys to many other things. Pakistan has nukes, Saudi Arabia controls world oil prices and Egypt offers Israel its only hope of some kind of (temporary) deal with the Arabs. If the pro-western regime in any of those nations falls, we will have suffered a strategic disaster. If they all go, our position in the region will collapse. The central strategic question, therefore, is what effect an American attack on Iraq will have on the stability and tenure of the Pakistani, Saudi and Egyptian regimes.</p>
<p>That leads to point number two: if and when American forces capture Baghdad and take down Saddam Hussein, the real war will not end but begin. It will be fought in Iraq in part, as an array of non-state elements begin to fight America and each other. It will be fought in part in the rest of the Islamic world where the targets will not only be Americans but any local regime that is friendly to America. And, of course, it will be fought here in America, as the sons of Mohammed remind Americans that war is a two-way street.</p>
<p>This kind of war, Fourth Generation war, is something American and other state armed forces do not know how to fight. It is not going to go well, and among the casualties are likely to be the pro-American governments in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. In short, an American victory over the state of Iraq (which is itself no sure thing) is more likely to lead to a strategic failure for America than to a strategic success.</p>
<p>In a somewhat more famous On War, Clausewitz wrote:</p>
<p>The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgement that the statesman and Commander have to make is to establish…the kind of war on which they are embarking: neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into, something that is alien to its nature. This is the first of all strategic questions and the most comprehensive.</p>
<p>With the invasion of Iraq, Washington is trying to turn a Fourth Generation war, a war with non-state entities, into a Second Generation war, a war against another state that can be conquered by the simple application of firepower to targets. If Clausewitz were still with us, I suspect he would warn that we are marching toward Jena, the battle where Napoleon decisively defeated Prussia in 1806.</p>
<p>The Spanish Road</p>
<p>John Boyd defined strategy as the art of connecting yourself to as many other power centers as possible while isolating your enemy from as many other power centers as possible. By that definition, Saddam Hussein appears to be a better strategist than the Bush Administration. Since the U.N. weapons inspectors renewed their work in Iraq, Saddam has managed to forge de facto alliances against war with France, Germany and Russia. He appears to be developing a positive connection with the inspectors themselves, with the U.N., and possibly with a majority of members of the U.N. Security Council. In contrast, the Administration in Washington has isolated itself from several of its oldest allies, provoked a serious split in NATO, and left itself very much on the defensive in the face of an inspections process that continues to find no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq — and thus no causus belli for the U.S.</p>
<p>Is this simply ineptitude, or is something larger going on here? I suggest the latter. For some time, elements in the Administration have been looking far beyond Iraq. They have spoken with increasing openness about re-making the entire Middle East, installing “democratic” governments that would be friendly not only to the United States but to Israel (I put “democratic” in quotes because genuinely democratic elections in most Middle Eastern countries would put radical Islamist regimes in power, which is not the outcome the new Wilsonians have in mind). America is to become not just “the only superpower” but a “hyperpower” which no one can hope to resist. China is to be cowed by an arms race she cannot afford; non-state elements will fall to American Special Forces; the U.N. will be a tool of American world dominance. America will be the new Britain, perhaps the new Rome.</p>
<p>Or, more likely, the new Spain. The Spanish analogy is not one most Americans will know, nor one the new Wilsonians will much care for. But it may prove apt.</p>
<p>The quest to create the “universal monarchy,” which was the earlier term for “the only superpower,” began in earnest with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the father of King Philip II of Spain. Charles ruled virtually all of Europe, except France. His kingdoms included Spain, which had the first true world empire. Fueled with the gold and silver of the New World and possessing an army so successful that it went unbeaten for more than a century, Spain offered Charles and then Philip the potential of ruling the world. You may recall that Armada business, when King Philip decided to end the impudence of an upstart island, England, and its Protestant queen, Elizabeth I. That did not go quite according to plan — somewhat like our current business in Afghanistan — but no matter; so rich was Spain that when the Armada was destroyed, Philip just built another one.</p>
<p>What finally stopped Hapsburg Spain and, later, France under Louis XIV and Napoleon and Germany under Hitler from establishing the universal monarchy was a fundamental characteristic of the international state system: whenever one nation attempts to attain world dominance, it pushes everyone else into a coalition against it. That dynamic, not any love for Saddam, is what is behind German and French opposition to the Bush Administration’s plan for war with Iraq. That is what is drawing others, including Russia, into supporting the French and the Germans. The Dutch ambassador to the United States was recently quoted in the Washington Post as saying he is concerned about a “monopoly of power without checks and balances. Self-assertiveness and an arrogance of power, that is a troubling thing.”</p>
<p>In fact, the Dutch ambassador is wrong: there are checks and balances, and we are now seeing them start to work. The failure of American strategy, and America’s growing self-isolation, are guaranteed so long as Washington aspires to world hegemony. The very nature of the international state system assures our quest for universal monarchy will fail, the same way all have failed. And our “unbeatable” military will find itself beaten, just as the Spanish army was beaten at Rocroi, by someone it thought would be a pushover.</p>
<p>The real question is not whether the American drive for world hegemony will succeed; it will not. The question is why we are attempting it in the first place.</p>
<p>WILLIAM S. LIND is Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Warning from Clausewitz on 4GW | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/03/08/a-warning-from-clausewitz-on-4gw/ | 2003-03-08 | 4 |
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<p>Samantha Power, Obama’s UN ambassador-in-waiting, frowned modestly as the president heaped lofty&#160;praise on her&#160;this week when he announced a major national security reshuffle.</p>
<p>“One of our foremost thinkers on foreign policy, she showed us that the international community has a moral responsibility and a profound interest in resolving conflicts and defending human dignity,” he said.&#160;“I think she won the Pulitzer Prize at the age of 15 or 16,” he joked. (Power&#160;won in 2003, in her early 30s, for A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, a rationale for American intervention in international atrocities.)</p>
<p>In accepting the president’s nomination—the Senate still needs to approve—Power argued for a strong American role in the UN: “As the most powerful and inspiring country on this Earth, we have a critical role to play in insisting that the institution meet the necessities of our time. It can do so only with American leadership.”</p>
<p>But will Samantha Power’s brand of leadership extend to advocating climate action from her powerful position at the UN? After all, climate change is a top priority in the UN: While development has been grinding, members at the&#160;Doha climate conference last December reaffirmed a previous decision to reach a global pact to replace Kyoto by 2015;&#160;secretary general Ban Ki-moon&#160;himself <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/22/ban-ki-moon-climate-agreement" type="external">has listed</a>&#160;climate change&#160;at the very top of his 2013 “to do” list (up there with stopping the bloodshed in Syria). By&#160;contrast, there’s very little evidence that climate change has&#160;motivated Samantha Power’s career or featured in her public comments, leaving foreign policy experts confused as to how she might rise to the challenge.&#160;The people in the know…don’t know.</p>
<p>“I don’t think she has ever illustrated particular views one way or another on the environment,” said former colleague Robert Stavins, an expert on environmental economics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.</p>
<p>“I don’t think we have any information,” said Joshua W. Busby, at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. On climate change, “I didn’t find anything she’s ever said.”</p>
<p>What clues we do have lie in her critique of the United Nations.&#160;She <a href="http://forum.iop.harvard.edu/content/united-states-foreign-policy" type="external">told</a> a 2004 audience at Harvard—where she was also a professor—that the UN was as marred by international distrust and suspicion as the US was, making international relief&#160;and intervention in humanitarian disasters tricky. “The guardian of international law legitimacy is itself seen to be something of a relic,” she said. What is needed, she argued, was a&#160;reinvestment in the UN. This would make the UN, once again, a body through which the US expressed foreign policy, in order to start “restoring the legitimacy of US power.”</p>
<p>In a 2008 interview with Harry Kreisler of the University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies, Power <a href="http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people8/Power/transcript_Power.pdf" type="external">appeared to group climate change with other insanely difficult global&#160;problems</a>&#160;like nuclear proliferation and terrorism. All, she said, require&#160;negotiations between many nations, rich and poor, that all want totally different things. The US can’t&#160;simply snap its fingers and get what it wants, she argued. Collaboration is key: “What’s important is to&#160;embrace the recognition that you need others by your side in order to get anything done.”</p>
<p>Another clue to Power’s stance on global warming: She admires the Brazilian-born United Nations worker Sergio&#160;Vieira&#160;de Mello. In her book&#160;Chasing the Flame, Power notes that&#160;Vieira&#160;de Mello foresaw an effective UN not only using its powers to “deepen and broaden the rules governing international and internal state practices on such vital concerns as global warming,” but also embracing alternative arrangements, like regional partnerships and working with NGOs, not as competitors, but as partners.</p>
<p>I found one other tiny insight in Power’s account of her first big conversation with her future boss, Senator Barack Obama, as&#160; <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/samantha-power-obama-and-me#ixzz2VS758nEX" type="external">told</a>&#160;to&#160;The Nation. “He really pushed me…He’s very aware of the tectonic plate shifts in the global order—the rise of China, the resurgence of Russia, the loss of influence by the US—and how those affect your ability to get what you want, on anything from global warming to getting out of Iraq to stopping genocide.”</p>
<p>In the absence of other evidence of her approach to climate change—I approached the White House to comment directly&#160;on her climate record for this article—experts have suggested looking at her husband, Cass&#160;Sunstein, who has <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-23/u-s-should-act-unilaterally-on-climate-change.html" type="external">written a lot</a> about climate change&#160;and America’s need to act,&#160;and Secretary of State John Kerry, for whom climate change is a major priority, and who will no doubt help set a lot of Power’s agenda through the State Department.</p>
<p>But these little hints are few and far between. In the end, Power’s appointment seems to put other concerns above climate, says Busby.&#160;“They may have higher priority items, like what to do in Syria, that they are thinking about.” And in the end,&#160;orders will come from the top, says&#160;Stavins: “Whether or not climate change is a priority for her, I assume, will depend on the White House.”</p>
<p /> | Samantha Power’s Climate Silence | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/samantha-power-climate-change-silence/ | 2013-06-07 | 4 |
<p>The American Corn Belt is home to some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. Last year nearly 87 million acres were mobilized to make possible the production of over 15 billion bushels of corn. Few things are more predictable than Uncle Sam's dominance come harvest time. Except, perhaps, Wall Street's pessimism over renewable-fuel markets.</p>
<p>Concerned by political (and therefore regulatory) uncertainty surrounding the present and future state of corn ethanol, Wall Street has sent shares of Green Plains (NASDAQ: GPRE) to 52-week lows. The pessimism may have made sense in the early days of the industry, but let's be clear: The ethanol industry isn't going anywhere.</p>
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<p>Today, it's a nearly 16-billion-gallon-per-year juggernaut. Growing global demand for renewable fuels makes ethanol one of America's best exports -- with over 1 billion gallons leaving our shores last year. And with plenty of spare capacity and a glut of corn, smart policy could increase production and export volumes handsomely.</p>
<p>But Wall Street appears to be punishing Green Plains stock without considering the long-term prospects. The favorable outlook&#160;for American corn ethanol, coupled with the company's strategic growth initiatives, make this under-the-radar-stock a smart buy.</p>
<p>Green Plains is the second-largest ethanol producer in the world with 1.5 billion gallons of annual production capacity, ranking behind only American counterpart POET. Ethanol is the obvious bread and butter of the business, bringing in the bulk of revenue and a significant amount of profits.</p>
<p>Earnings are impacted by the price of tax credits&#160;-- a fact central to Wall Street's perpetual pessimism -- but that's largely out of the company's control. If you believe the risk of regulatory uncertainty is overblown (as I do), then all you need to know is that management has constructed a finely tuned machine that makes money in all market environments.</p>
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<p>This is made possible by the fact that there's a lot more to ethanol production than, well, ethanol production.</p>
<p>Consider how each business unit interacts with the company's bread-and-butter operations by supplying inputs or handling and processing outputs, as ranked by responsibilities:</p>
<p>Separating these responsibilities into business segments (and even assigning them to other companies) allows Green Plains to more fully optimize operations and create value from all parts of ethanol production. That makes it easier for management and investors to identify growth opportunities -- of which there are many.</p>
<p>There's really only one way to put it: Wall Street's pessimism stems from outdated thinking. The American ethanol industry is quite strong today and too important economically to disrupt by removing or reducing subsidies outright. More important, a deeper look at Green Plains shows that it has been carefully investing to maximize the value it derives from all aspects of ethanol production. If you're looking for long-term growth, you'd be smart to buy this under-the-radar stock.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Green PlainsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=42f31ee0-7391-11e7-918f-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Maxx Chatsko Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=42f31ee0-7391-11e7-918f-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why You're Smart to Buy This Under-the-Radar Stock | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/01/why-youre-smart-to-buy-this-under-radar-stock.html | 2017-08-01 | 0 |
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<p>The House of Representatives’ Small Business Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology met Thursday for a hearing on "Creating Jobs Through Small Business Innovation."</p>
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<p>At the center of the hearing was a push from both House Democrats and Republicans to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research program (SBIR).&#160; Rep. Sam Graves(R-MO) said the SBIR reauthorization is long overdue, it’s been eight years since the last one was passed. The version being considered will run three-years, which supporting lawmakers say is the right amount of time to review the program to see what is and isn't working.</p>
<p>Right now, Graves said small businesses that have venture capital firms funding them cannot participate in the SBIR program, but this would also be amended under the reauthorization.</p>
<p>"It's a huge deal, and allows for greater participation among small businesses," Graves said. "Hopefully a lot of companies will be able to participate. New technology and <a href="" type="internal">biotech</a> companies have a lot of outside venture capital involved and right now they can't participate."</p>
<p>Rep. Renee Elmers (R-NC), chair of the subcommittee, said the SBIR reauthorization also increases the amount of available small business grant money by nearly 10%. In the first phase of funding $150,000 would be available to small businesses, and in the second phase $1 million is up for grabs.</p>
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<p>Venture capital participation will also increase by nearly 45%, Elmers said.</p>
<p>"This will go far in removing the uncertainty out there," she said. "Research and development is at a standstill because there's not enough capital to support it. This is [lawmakers] showing that we are serious and understand that it’s small business and the private sectors that create jobs."</p>
<p>Graves said he is hopeful the reauthorization will be passed within the next two months.</p> | Lawmakers: SBIR Reauthorization Will Spur Job Growth | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/04/07/sbir-reauthorization-hearing.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>Forty years ago, the National Audubon Society began&#160;Project Puffin, an attempt to restore the threatened&#160;seabird&#160;to its native nesting islands off the coast of Maine. Today, you can watch their success live on the internet.&#160;</p>
<p>From Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge in Maine,&#160;a live video stream shows puffins raising chicks in an underground burrow&#160;and hanging out on the rocks. These weatherproof cameras&#160;provide an intimate look into the homes and lives of puffins.</p>
<p>“It’s a remarkable setting for cams,” says Steve Kress, director of the Audubon Society’s Seabird Restoration Program, otherwise known as&#160; <a href="http://projectpuffin.audubon.org" type="external">Project Puffin</a>. “This island is so remote that you can't really see it from the mainland. You have to go on a boat for hours to get to it. The cams show us the world on Seal Island above ground and underground, and this permits us to get new insight into the lives of seabirds.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.audubon.org" type="external">Audubon</a> has had cams on Seal Island for five years. One of them sits on a remote point of land they call the Puffin loafing ledge.</p>
<p>“This is a spot where puffins come to socialize, just to hang out,” Kress explains. “We also have a camera underground, inside a puffin burrow. This camera shows the pair of puffins billing, preening, incubating their egg, the moments of hatching, the tender feeding of the chick and finally the chick leaving the island by itself.”</p>
<p>The presence of the cameras has no effect on the birds. “The camera is a small box that sits in the back of the burrow and the birds see it as just another rock,” Kress says. “We have a team of interns, young biologists, who are living on Seal Island and they are in charge of protecting the birds and when necessary they can help adjust the cameras.”</p>
<p>“Occasionally, the puffins will send a squirt of guano in the wrong direction and it can hit the camera straight on and then, of course, we hear about it from other viewers right away. So it's a good thing the interns are living not too far away. They can go out, they can pull the camera out and they can clean it off, pop it back in and then everybody's happy again.”</p>
<p>Puffin TV has proven to be quite popular. Last year, there were over 3&#160;million viewer pages open from all over the world, Kress says. Through these cams, the public can learn about the lives of birds at a level never before possible.</p>
<p>Nest cams can also reveal some of nature’s harsh realities: chicks that don't make it, attacks from predators or even attacks from parent birds. Last year, for example, on the Osprey camera, a bald eagle swooped down and within seconds snatched the chicks from the nest.</p>
<p>Some people were very upset, but these things happen whether we are seeing them or not, Kress says. “This is predation. Predation happens so quickly. Without predation these predatory birds wouldn't be able to live.”</p>
<p>Audubon’s partners at <a href="http://explore.org" type="external">explore.org</a> have given them the grant for Puffin TV and also helped design a citizen science project, in which viewers can record the feedings of the chick and even identify the kinds of fish they are being fed.</p>
<p>“That’s another important part of this,” Kress says. “They’re telling us about the forage fish in the area around the nesting islands. The forage fish are changing because of climate and they're changing because of the impacts of fisheries, and this pair of puffins is telling us about all of that.”</p>
<p>The Audubon Society and The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, where Kress teaches, operate other bird cameras in many wildlife sanctuaries. The most well-known is for Red-tailed Hawks in Ithaca. They also have an Albatross cam in Hawaii and many others, which can all be found on the website, <a href="http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/#_ga=1.250718214.1881376837.1467241627" type="external">All About Birds</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://explore.org" type="external">Explore.org</a> also has a whole range of live cams on their homepage.</p>
<p>This article is based on an <a href="http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=16-P13-00025&amp;segmentID=7" type="external">interview</a> that aired on PRI’s <a href="http://www.loe.org/index.html" type="external">Living on Earth</a> with Steve Curwood.</p> | Puffin TV captures the successful restoration of a threatened seabird to its Maine habitat | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-07-05/puffin-tv-captures-successful-restoration-threatened-seabird-its-maine-habitat | 2016-07-05 | 3 |
<p>Sept. 25 (UPI) — Maroon 5 frontman <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Adam_Levine/" type="external">Adam Levine</a> celebrated daughter Dusty Rose’s first birthday over the weekend.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old singer and pregnant wife <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/behati-prinsloo/" type="external">Behati Prinsloo</a> threw their daughter a colorful party featuring enormous unicorn balloons.</p>
<p>“We made it once around the sun…. @adamlevine,” Prinsloo captioned a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BZaU85Qlc0k/" type="external">photo</a> Saturday on Instagram of herself and Levine posing with the balloons.</p>
<p>“Not sure who enjoyed these wise old unicorns more, me or the kids. Thank you @johnalfordballoons,” she added.</p>
<p>Dusty officially turned one year old Thursday, Sept. 21. Her birthday celebration followed news Prinsloo <a href="https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2017/09/14/Behati-Prinsloo-pregnant-with-second-child-Round-2/5931505395772/" type="external">is pregnant and expecting another baby</a> with Levine.</p>
<p>“ROUND 2…..” the 28-year-old model <a href="https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2017/09/14/Behati-Prinsloo-pregnant-with-second-child-Round-2/5931505395772/" type="external">announced alongside a picture</a> of her baby bump this month.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.etonline.com/exclusive-behati-prinsloo-and-adam-levine-expecting-baby-no-2-adam-over-moon-source-says-87170" type="external">Entertainment Tonight subsequently reported</a> Levine and Prinsloo are “over the moon” to welcome another child.</p>
<p>“He and Behati want lots of kids, and they want them close in age,” a source said. “Adam is over the moon, as is Behati. They are in love with Dusty and can’t wait to make her a big sister.”</p>
<p>“Adam has already been making sure his schedule next year has time to allow for him to take off work and be with the new baby,” the insider said of the singer and The Voice coach.</p> | Adam Levine celebrates daughter Dusty Rose's first birthday | false | https://newsline.com/adam-levine-celebrates-daughter-dusty-roses-first-birthday/ | 2017-09-25 | 1 |
<p>ZAGREB (Reuters) – A Croatian court on Tuesday sentenced a Serb former paramilitary commander to 15 years in prison for torturing and killing soldiers and civilians during Croatia’s 1991-95 independence war.</p>
<p>Dragan Vasiljkovic, 62, who has dual Serbian and Australian citizenship, was charged with violating the Geneva Convention by torturing and killing captive Croatian soldiers and police in the rebel stronghold of Knin and for crimes near the towns of Glina and Benkovac in 1991 and 1993.</p>
<p>Vasiljkovic, whose trial in the Adriatic city of Split took one year, denied he had committed any crimes and can file an appeal.</p>
<p>He was extradited to Croatia in 2015 after losing a nine-year battle to block extradition. He had been living in Perth</p>
<p>and working as a golf instructor under the name Daniel Snedden.</p>
<p>Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 but its Serb minority, backed by Belgrade, seized a third of the country by force. Croatia retook its occupied territory in a 1995 offensive.</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> | Croatia jails Serb paramilitary commander for war crimes | false | https://newsline.com/croatia-jails-serb-paramilitary-commander-for-war-crimes/ | 2017-09-26 | 1 |
<p>ANALYSIS/OPINION:</p>
<p>Mass fan walkouts at stadiums will prove more effective than boycotting NFL advertisers.</p>
<p>Organize mass exits and I guarantee you’ll beat the flag flouters at their own mass-media game.</p>
<p>This is not to say you shouldn’t continue to throw your slippers at the TV set and curse a blue streak when major league players thumb their noses at Old Glory. I do.</p>
<p>I’m just saying we can also do something really useful.</p>
<p>When you walk out after standing for “Oh say can you see … ,” the TV cameras will show you saying, louder and better, the opposite of what the flag back-handers are saying.</p>
<p>The TV cameras will follow you to the exits of those vast stadiums — instant TV impact nationally and internationally.</p>
<p>And an immediate, positive and lasting impact on our national psyche.</p>
<p>The fabulously wealthy players who take a knee not in thanks for the privilege of being American and living in America but in disgust at both are expressing ignorance of — or disrespect for — some amazing things about America.</p>
<p>They dis the only nation in history to engage in the massive slaughter of each other in a moral war to end the un-Christian practice of slavery. I and my family would have fought in that war on the anti-slavery side.</p>
<p>The kneelers give the finger to the only nation in history to go in less than a century from slavery to national anti-discrimination legislation, with criminal penalties for violations.</p>
<p>And any race-baiters out there, get this straight: I helped lead demonstrations locally and nationally in support of enacting that civil-rights legislation. I marched with Dr. King.</p>
<p>The kneelers, meanwhile, dis America’s legal codes that guarantee equal opportunity in employment, housing, public accommodation and service.</p>
<p>The knee-takers are flipping the bird to the only nation that, thanks to court interpretation of these civil rights laws, have made a peculiar form of affirmative action both legal and mandatory. This affirmative action gives the once-discriminated against the legal edge over Americans who aren’t black, regardless of objective qualifications. This is not good. Black, white, Asian and other Americans agree on that.</p>
<p>The kneelers, in what must be one of the most colossal displays of ignorance and irony on record, thumb their noses at the only nation that, thanks to its press and academics, has made too many black Americans think they have a cultural and racial right — even obligation — to resist lawful arrest and to kill law-enforcement officers for trying to carry out arrests.</p>
<p>This all too often accounts for the race riots, arson, vandalism, pillage, beatings and shootings when a black person challenges an arresting officer. This is very bad for the vast majority of all races in America.</p>
<p>The knee-takers may have only a dim understanding of what they’re doing and why.</p>
<p>We who disagree with what they’re doing should understand that it’s far better for even a few — though I suspect it’ll be many — to quietly and politely exit stadiums as the world watches than to boycott advertisers. Not buying certain insurance, breakfast cereal, car or truck brands takes a long time to have measurable impact on sales and eventually on advertising revenue. No one is ever certain that sales decline because of the boycott or shifting consumer tastes.</p>
<p>The visual impact of mass walkouts that show respect for America won’t be uncertain. It will show that, for the vast majority of us, our flag is still there.</p>
<p>•&#160;Ralph Z. Hallow, the chief political correspondent of commentary, served on the Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Washington Times editorial boards, was Ford Foundation Fellow in Urban Journalism at Northwestern University and resident at Columbia University Editorial-Page Editors Seminar.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/xGjXcUKYsKxMeCUl1" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Sure, players can kneel — and NFL’s customers should walk | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/24/sure-players-can-kneel-and-nfls-customers-should-w/ | 2017-09-24 | 0 |
<p>The Donald Trump campaign has circulated a memo telling surrogates to bring up Bill Clinton's sex scandals while defending Trump's comments about women like former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/politics/donald-trump-monica-lewinsky-hillary-clinton/index.html" type="external">CNN</a> reported late Wednesday.</p>
<p>"Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton's accusers," one campaign talking point reads, according to CNN.</p>
<p />
<p>Another line tells surrogates to say, "Hillary Clinton bullied and smeared women like Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky."</p>
<p>The memo even directs supporters on how to respond when asked if they are blaming Hillary Clinton for her husband's affairs.</p>
<p>"Are you blaming Hillary for Bill's infidelities? No, however, she's been an active participant in trying to destroy the women who has come forward with a claim," one of the talking points reads.</p>
<p>After Trump boasted that he did not mention Monica Lewinsky during the Monday night debate, his surrogates <a href="" type="internal">applauded</a> his "restraint" and <a href="" type="internal">proceeded</a> to try to link Hillary Clinton to her husband's sex scandals.</p>
<p>In a Thursday morning statement, the Clinton campaign bashed Trump for bringing up Hillary Clinton's marriage in an attempt to distract from his own record with women.</p>
<p>"After his disastrous debate performance and his sexist attack on a former Miss Universe over her weight, Donald Trump is now trying to deflect by going after Hillary Clinton about her marriage," spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. "While Trump and lieutenants like Roger Stone and David Bossie may want to dredge up failed attacks from the 1990s, as many Republicans have warned, this is a mistake that is going to backfire. He can try to distract from his demeaning comments against women, but if Donald Trump thinks these attacks against Hillary Clinton are going to throw her off her game and what matters to move this country forward, he is wrong."</p> | Trump Campaign Memo Tells Surrogates To Bring Up Clinton Sex Scandals | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-memo-bill-clinton | 4 |
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<p>The Congressional Budget Office issued a report about the effects of the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. Its conclusion is that 3 million people who would have had health insurance before this opinion was passed down will not have it. Clearly, the consequences were unintended, but they leave open how the government and economy will handle the problem of 1% of Americans losing something they expected.</p>
<p><a href="http://247wallst.com/2012/07/25/cbo-supreme-court-decision-could-cost-millions-their-health-care/" type="external">This story was originally published by 24/7 Wall Street Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The “Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act Updated for the Recent Supreme Court Decision” stated:</p>
<p>CBO and JCT (Joint Committee on Taxation) now estimate that the insurance coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of $1,168 billion over the 2012–2022 period — compared with $1,252 billion projected in March 2012 for that 11-year period — for a net reduction of $84 billion.</p>
<p>And:</p>
<p>In 2022, for example, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are expected to cover about 6 million fewer people than previously estimated, about 3 million more people will be enrolled in exchanges, and about 3 million more people will be uninsured.</p>
<p>To some extent, the culprits are the states:</p>
<p>As a result of the Court’s decision, CBO and JCT now anticipate that some states will not expand their programs at all or will not expand coverage to the full extent authorized by the ACA (Affordable Care Act).</p>
<p>The state problem was anticipated. The extent of its effects was not.</p>
<p>Will all 3 million remain uninsured? One of two things could happen to answer that. Congress and the Administration could act to help them, but that is unlikely because of gridlock and the breadth of the decision by the Court. Alternatively, the states that can provide the coverage might be more generous. With so many states faced with budget shortfalls and the prospects of severe austerity, that will not happen.</p>
<p>Because of the Supreme Court decision, 3 million people who should have been able to find affordable health care under the act will not do so.</p>
<p><a href="http://247wallst.com/2012/07/20/cities-where-homes-cost-less-than-a-car/" type="external">Read: Cities Where Homes Cost Less Than a Car Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://247wallst.com/2012/07/12/the-fastest-growing-cities-in-america/" type="external">Read: The Fastest-Growing Cities in America Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://247wallst.com/2012/07/19/states-with-the-most-homes-underwater/" type="external">Read: States With the Most Homes Underwater Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | CBO: Supreme Court Decision Could Cost Millions Their Health Care | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/07/25/cbo-supreme-court-decision-could-cost-millions-their-health-care.html | 2016-01-26 | 0 |
<p>SALISBURY, N.C. (AP) — An autopsy report on a North Carolina teenager whose remains were found in 2016 showed she had broken bones all over her body.</p>
<p>Local media outlets cited a report on Erica Parsons from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh which said she died of "homicidal violence of undetermined means." The report said fractures in various stages of healing were found in her nose, jaw, upper right arm, nine ribs and several vertebrae.</p>
<p>The report said the teen may also have had an untreated infection, renal failure or poisoning.</p>
<p>Her adoptive father, Sandy Parsons, led authorities to her remains in Chesterfield, South Carolina, in October 2016. He and his wife Casey are in prison on fraud convictions.</p>
<p>No charges have been filed in the teen's death.</p>
<p>SALISBURY, N.C. (AP) — An autopsy report on a North Carolina teenager whose remains were found in 2016 showed she had broken bones all over her body.</p>
<p>Local media outlets cited a report on Erica Parsons from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh which said she died of "homicidal violence of undetermined means." The report said fractures in various stages of healing were found in her nose, jaw, upper right arm, nine ribs and several vertebrae.</p>
<p>The report said the teen may also have had an untreated infection, renal failure or poisoning.</p>
<p>Her adoptive father, Sandy Parsons, led authorities to her remains in Chesterfield, South Carolina, in October 2016. He and his wife Casey are in prison on fraud convictions.</p>
<p>No charges have been filed in the teen's death.</p> | Autopsy: Missing North Carolina teen had many broken bones | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9a81a6919ce2455f94e181372bd6bf38 | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p />
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23017%5D" type="external">press release</a> from People for the American Way, there are several different sorts of voting problems that have already occurred:</p>
<p>Voter intimidation: California, Maryland, Illinois, New York, Texas</p>
<p>Machines and technology snafus: Maryland, California, Illinois, Tennessee</p>
<p>New voter ID laws: Ohio, Arizona, Indiana</p>
<p>A run on absentee ballots: Pennsylvania, California, Maryland</p>
<p /> | More Election Day Problems | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/11/more-election-day-problems/ | 2006-11-06 | 4 |
<p>Everyone has misplaced a very important item at least once in their life. Some individuals are notorious for losing specific things such as the remote control or car keys. This scenario involves losing something major, but there’s a surprise happy ending.</p>
<p>In 2009, Courtney Connolly was in the midst of a summer internship in Wellfleet, Massachusetts when she had her wallet removed from her car. This wallet included her credit cards, social security card, and $141 in cold, hard cash. As expected, she searched for her wallet, but she eventually gave up on the hunt and moved on.</p>
<p>Eight years later, the nursing student received the <a href="http://www.fox25boston.com/news/stolen-wallet-shows-up-8-years-later-cash-untouched/505076577" type="external">shock</a> of a lifetime when the Boston Police handed her the wallet back in the same condition it was in when she lost it. A random person discovered her address on an old pay stub place in the wallet, and they rushed it over to the authorities. When it comes to the sudden find, Courtney states</p>
<p>“Some way or another the universe will come back and say, I see what you’re doing, I know you’re doing well, I know you’re trying to here’s your thank you for trying. I believe whole heartedly what this is.”</p>
<p>This was also very convenient because the Boston native was getting ready to enlist in a powerlifting competition, and she needed some money in order to get herself into the challenge. How much did she need? Well, she had to put down exactly $141, which is what stayed in her wallet for all of these years.</p>
<p>The real shocker for this story is that nobody used her credit cards or social security to make her life a living hell. Luckily, she had her cards shut down, but the same can’t be said for her social security. In the wrong hands, your social security number can cause all sorts of calamity, including stolen information.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Featured image via&#160; <a href="http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2017/03/23/Stolen-wallet-returned-8-years-later-with-141-cash-still-inside/8791490300672/?utm_source=sec&amp;utm_campaign=sl&amp;utm_medium=18" type="external">WCVB-TV</a></p> | Missing Wallet Turns Up 8 Years Later And You Won’t Believe What’s Inside (VIDEO) | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/03/25/woman-reunites-with-missing-wallet-after-8-years/ | 2017-03-25 | 4 |
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions has appointed an interim U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.</p>
<p>Sessions announced Timothy Garrison's appointment in a news release Wednesday. His appointment is effective Friday.</p>
<p>Garrison has been an assistant U.S. attorney in the district's Springfield office since 2007.</p>
<p>Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Garrison was a prosecutor in the Marine Corps. He is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions has appointed an interim U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.</p>
<p>Sessions announced Timothy Garrison's appointment in a news release Wednesday. His appointment is effective Friday.</p>
<p>Garrison has been an assistant U.S. attorney in the district's Springfield office since 2007.</p>
<p>Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Garrison was a prosecutor in the Marine Corps. He is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p> | Sessions names interim US attorney for western Missouri | false | https://apnews.com/780758f21b3741a6aae35b4db2a24d05 | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
<p>EDINBURGH (Reuters) – British outsourcer G4S (CO:) has suspended nine members of staff at an immigration removal center while it investigates a BBC report alleging abuse in the treatment of migrants, the company said on Friday.</p>
<p>“We have received written allegations of abhorrent conduct at Brook House and on that basis we have deemed it serious enough to suspend the staff involved,” a spokeswoman for G4S said. She said the company had not yet seen footage of the alleged incidents, however.</p>
<p>BBC Panorama, a flagship documentary program, said on its website that an investigation revealed “chaos, incompetence and abuse” in the treatment of migrants in a program which will be aired next week.</p>
<p>The incident has been reported to the police, the spokeswoman said. Officers were not immediately able to comment.</p>
<p>“The kind of behavior alleged is completely unacceptable, and does a great disservice to the vast majority of staff who do a great job in very difficult circumstances,” the spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>The issue highlights the difficulty of running sensitive services for the government and the potential reputational damage for outsourcing companies.</p>
<p>Earlier this year an investigation at the G4S-run Medway Secure Training Centre resulted in allegations of abuse and mistreatment of youngsters. The center is now run by the government’s National Offender Management Service.</p>
<p>Brook House, near Gatwick Airport, is staffed by more than 200 employees and has around 500 occupants. More than 14,000 people passed through it in the last year.</p>
<p>The unit houses a mix of those who have not fulfilled their visa requirements and criminals who are being deported.</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> | G4S suspends nine staff at UK migrant center, says to investigate conduct | false | https://newsline.com/g4s-suspends-nine-staff-at-uk-migrant-center-says-to-investigate-conduct/ | 2017-09-01 | 1 |
<p>Before she became Caro Emerald she was Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw, a young vocalist studying jazz at the Amsterdam Conservatory.</p>
<p>One day she met two producers who needed a singer for a demo of a song called "Back It Up."</p>
<p>Emerald says, "It was just love at first sight. I just so loved this song, and I was like, "Oh My God I'm going to be the demo singer of a really really big hit."</p>
<p>She says it all just clicked for her.</p>
<p>Emerald continues, "This moment with 'Back it Up' was definitely one of those moments where you just know, "This is the kind of music I would like to make." I knew that in that second."</p>
<p>So began her transformation into the smokey jazz chanteuse known as Caro Emerald.</p>
<p>She and the producers decided to make a full-length album and put it out on their own.</p>
<p>Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor is a highly stylized nod to the big bands and jazz divas of the 40s and 50s.</p> | Retro-Style Jazz Music from Dutch Singer Caro Emerald | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-02-07/retro-style-jazz-music-dutch-singer-caro-emerald | 2013-02-07 | 3 |
<p>CENTURION, South Africa (AP) — South Africa beat India by 135 runs in the second test at SuperSport Park on Wednesday to win the series. South Africa leads the three-match contest 2-0 with one test to play.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>South Africa 335 (Aiden Markram 94, Hashim Amla 82, Faf du Plessis 63; Ravichandran Ashwin 4-113) and 258 (AB de Villiers 80, Dean Elgar 61; Mohammed Shami 4-49) beat India 307 (Virat Kohli 153; Morne Morkel 4-60) and 151 (Rohit Sharma 47; Lungi Ngidi 6-39) by 135 runs.</p>
<p>CENTURION, South Africa (AP) — South Africa beat India by 135 runs in the second test at SuperSport Park on Wednesday to win the series. South Africa leads the three-match contest 2-0 with one test to play.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>South Africa 335 (Aiden Markram 94, Hashim Amla 82, Faf du Plessis 63; Ravichandran Ashwin 4-113) and 258 (AB de Villiers 80, Dean Elgar 61; Mohammed Shami 4-49) beat India 307 (Virat Kohli 153; Morne Morkel 4-60) and 151 (Rohit Sharma 47; Lungi Ngidi 6-39) by 135 runs.</p> | SAfrica beats India by 135 runs in 2nd test to take series | false | https://apnews.com/amp/51a736d6655249398b89e90fd5f1c4fa | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
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<p>Higher Education Secretary Barbara Damron is leading a study of the 21 governing boards running New Mexico’s 31 public colleges and universities. (Jim Thompson/ Journal)</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p>New Mexico has 21 different governing boards running its 31 public colleges and universities, a higher education model some critics argue is inefficient and maybe even ineffective.</p>
<p>Now the state is actively exploring alternatives.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The New Mexico Higher Education Department is leading a study to determine whether reorganization or consolidation would make more sense, and department Secretary Barbara Damron said she aims to deliver recommendations to the Legislature and governor by the end of this year.</p>
<p>Her department has enlisted about 100 people to help, including university administrators, faculty and other campus personnel, lawmakers, representatives from K-12 education, business and other interested groups.</p>
<p>Three committees are examining different topics: higher education governance models around the U.S.; the financial implications of reorganizing – or keeping things the same – in New Mexico; and what changes to state law, if any, a reorganization would require since many schools’ governance is dictated by the New Mexico Constitution.</p>
<p>Damron warned against advocating for any specific changes until the research is complete, noting the complexities involved.</p>
<p>“There is no one answer to how higher education should be structured,” she said. “We have essentially 50 labs (in 50 states) going on.”</p>
<p>The project is an outgrowth of a statewide higher education master-planning process HED initiated last August that yielded an “attainment goal” – that 66 percent of working-age New Mexicans will have some post-secondary credential by 2030 – and ushered in some reforms.</p>
<p>The effort recently narrowed to reorganization research due to what Damron called the “appetite” for such information.</p>
<p>New Mexico devotes about 13 percent of its general fund to higher education. Critics for years have complained that New Mexico’s decentralized higher education network has created unnecessary overlap and duplication, and calls for change have grown louder amid the state’s budget crisis. The state’s 31 public institutions have a combined 77 access points around the state.</p>
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<p>Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, warned during a recent higher education forum that the state’s higher education funding is spread too thin.</p>
<p>“The bottom line is we’ve cut that pie into so many pieces that it’s very difficult for us to do justice financially to all the institutions in the state of New Mexico,” Smith said.</p>
<p>During the 2017 Legislature, Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, and Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, sponsored a joint memorial urging HED to study the costs and benefits of New Mexico’s system compared to others around the country.</p>
<p>McCamley said last week that New Mexico has a “disjointed” network of colleges and universities, making it harder to effect consistent change and limiting the ability to leverage New Mexico’s higher education assets.</p>
<p>He noted that the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology all sought a piece of the Sandia National Laboratories management contract when it went out for bid last year but did so as part of two different teams. Neither team won the contract.</p>
<p>McCamley also said New Mexico’s investment in higher education has not paid commensurate dividends on the workforce development front.</p>
<p>“Everybody knows something needs to get done; it’s just a question of what that turns out to be,” McCamley said. “But we have to treat this with a sense of urgency. We have to get better and do it sooner rather than later.”</p>
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<p /> | NM’s higher ed system under microscope | false | https://abqjournal.com/1040653/nms-higher-ed-system-under-microscope-2.html | 2017-07-30 | 2 |
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<p>SEDONA, Ariz. — The Arizona Department of Transportation will be adding protective fencing to a Sedona-area bridge where people have jumped to their deaths.</p>
<p>Sedona sought ADOT’s help after four people committed suicide last year from Midgley Bridge.</p>
<p>That’s twice as many suicides as any other year in the past decade at the historic steel arch bridge along State Route 89A, about 1 ½ miles north of Sedona.</p>
<p>ADOT officials said Thursday that 10-foot-tall, chain-link style fencing will be attached to the bridge’s railings over the next few weeks.</p>
<p>It’ll involve overnight lane closures and alternating traffic over the bridge.</p>
<p>The restriction will be in place from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sundays through Fridays beginning Dec. 5 and ending Dec. 23.</p>
<p>If necessary, work will resume Dec. 26 and continue until completion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Sedona-area bridge to get protective fencing to stop jumpers | false | https://abqjournal.com/899877/sedona-area-bridge-to-get-protective-fencing-to-stop-jumpers.html | 2 |
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<p>The hunt is on for a new chief of one of Europe’s biggest media companies after <a href="http://variety.com/t/thomas-ebeling/" type="external">Thomas Ebeling</a>, the boss of Germany’s <a href="http://variety.com/t/prosiebensat-1/" type="external">ProSiebenSat.1</a>, said he will leave the company on Feb. 22, 2018. Ebeling had previously indicated his intention to move on and has now fixed his exit for directly after the company’s February press conference on its FY2017 results.</p>
<p>The departing chief’s contract ran until mid-2019, but he told German press late last year that he did not want to renew his deal. Ebeling, who joined <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/discovery-prosieben-free-streaming-germany-1202590780/" type="external">ProSiebenSat.1</a> in 2009, has worked across the media industry and also in other sectors such as pharmaceuticals and food and drink.</p>
<p>While the search for a successor proceeds, executive board member Conrad Albert has been named deputy chairman and will take over from Ebeling if a successor is not in place when he departs.</p>
<p>ProSiebenSat.1 has been on a diversification drive, broadening out beyond TV and attempting to reduce its exposure to the volatile TV ad market. It now generates more than half of its revenue from non-traditional activities.&#160;Ebeling’s announced departure has fueled speculation that ProSiebenSat.1 could itself become an acquisition target.</p>
<p>“I am convinced that&#160;ProSiebenSat.1&#160;will add further positive chapters to its success story with the measures taken,” Ebeling said. “With its strong TV business, access to data and technology and the dynamically growing commerce business,&#160;ProSiebenSat.1&#160;has all the prerequisites to proceed in a successful manner going forward. Already today, I wish the company, the management team and its passionate and dedicated employees all the best and continued success in this way.”</p>
<p>Werner Brandt, chairman of the supervisory board of&#160;ProSiebenSat.1, said: “Our search for a successor focuses on a personality that continues the outstanding work of <a href="http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/prosiebensat-1-quarterly-revenue-1201765127/" type="external">Thomas Ebeling</a> and continues to drive diversification and digital transformation with equally entrepreneurial vision and assertiveness.”</p> | Thomas Ebeling to Step Down as Head of Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 | false | https://newsline.com/thomas-ebeling-to-step-down-as-head-of-germanys-prosiebensat-1/ | 2017-11-20 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Automakers are headed toward a series of technological revolutions. By 2040, electric vehicles are expected to account for about 35% of new global car sales. And by 2050, nearly every new car on the road will be <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/27/1-in-10-cars-will-be-driverless-by-2035.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">fully autonomous Opens a New Window.</a>, according IHS Automotive.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But before carmakers can reach either of these milestones, they'll need to implement an easy way to fix software problems in their vehicles, and update them with new features when they want. They'll do this by using a technology that's been around forseveral years called over-the-air (OTA) updates, which allows manufactures to change a vehicle's on-board software remotely.</p>
<p>And according a report published by IHSAutomotive late last year, carmakers could save $35 billion in 2022 just by using OTA updates, up from $2.7 billion in savings last year.</p>
<p>Why OTA saves automakers money IHS said that carmakers will be able to reduce the cost of warranties, increase the completion rate of software-related recalls (some customers never come in, so their updates can't be done), and allow companies to enhance vehicle features.</p>
<p>Image source: Tesla.</p>
<p>Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) has already done a number of these OTA updates, including its most recent upgrade for its self-parking and summon feature. In TSLA's case, the updates allowed the cars to drive themselves in certain conditions on the road, as well as in and out of garages or parking spaces.</p>
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<p>Colin Bird, senior analyst of software, apps and services at IHS Automotive, said in the report that,"Software expertise is becoming a core competency for auto OEMs and it starts with a good software platform strategy, followed by strong software development and execution."</p>
<p>The biggest OTA updates will involve maps, apps, infotainment, telematics, and electronic control updates. The average new car has about 200 million lines of programming code, and much of that code can be tweaked later to improve safety, update maps, or add entirely new features.</p>
<p>Major carmakers are already making big pushes in this direction. Last year, BMW started using OTA updates for its navigation systems, and some of its vehicles have built-in SIM cards for cellular connections.</p>
<p>So, instead of waiting for owners to physically bring their vehicles to a dealership, Tesla and BMW can update certain electronic systems quickly and cheaply. ABI Research says that in 2015, four major car OEMs set aside $20 billion for warranty-related changes. About one-third of those changes could have been made via OTA updates, which would have saved them $6 billion.</p>
<p>From optional to standard There are two reasons why automakers are pursuing this technology right now. The first is competition.</p>
<p>Tesla has set a new standard on OTA updates, and other carmakers are starting to see that the benefits outweigh any of the drawbacks. General Motors was an early adopter of OTA telematics updates through its OnStar system, but it wasn't until Tesla started tweaking the performance of its vehicles through such software updates that carmakers (and car owners) realized OTA's full potential.</p>
<p>The technology will be become more commonplace aselectric vehicles become more popular. Electric cars can more easily have their performance enhanced via software updates than internal combustion engines can, and new software can make battery packs even more efficient.</p>
<p>Secondly, as cars become even more centered on electrical systems and software, they'll be more vulnerable to bugs and hacking. Automakers have no choice but to implement OTA update systems in order toprotect cars and those who ride in them. In all likelihood, updates will be needed so frequently that bringing those millions of cars into dealerships to perform them will rapidly become cost and time prohibitive.</p>
<p>Image source: Jeep.</p>
<p>ABI noted that Fiat Chrysler's 1.4 million car recall last year -- initiated by a hacking vulnerability -- could have been handled more easily and safely via OTA updates than by the method Chrysler ended up using: sending USB drives to car owners.</p>
<p>"This method, in place of an OTA update, increased security risk, the plausibility of owner identification, and the inability to ensure that the patch was done and done correctly," wrote ABI in a press release.</p>
<p>So while most major automakers are just starting to dabble in this technology, it's soon going to become a bedrock of how cars' features and safety recalls are implemented. It'll help make our vehicles better than ever before, and save carmakers a ton of money at the same time.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/30/carmakers-could-save-35-billion-in-2022-by-doing-t.aspx" type="external">Carmakers Could Save $35 Billion in 2022 by Doing This Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Chris Neiger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool recommends BMW and General Motors. 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> | Carmakers Could Save $35 Billion in 2022 by Doing This | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/30/carmakers-could-save-35-billion-in-2022-by-doing-this.html | 2016-04-30 | 0 |
<p>Nothing Donald Trump has done since his inauguration 14 months ago is more dangerous—to the United States, and indeed, to the world—than his selection of John Bolton for National Security Adviser. It is not surprising the president would feel most comfortable receiving advice from a fellow bully.</p>
<p>Trump bullies people on a nearly daily basis, directing his ire at immigrants, Muslims, women, LBGTQ people, the poor and the environment. He hurls Twitter attacks at those who disagree with him.</p>
<p>The president has encouraged police brutality, suggesting in a Long Island speech that law enforcement officers bang suspects’ heads against police car doors. “Please don’t be too nice” when arresting people, Trump advised. “Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put your hand over” their head, “I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?'”</p>
<p>After being told someone might throw tomatoes at him at a campaign rally, Trump urged his supporters to “knock the crap out of them … I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.”&#160;He stated on Fox News that a Black Lives Matter activist who was attacked at a Trump rally “should have been roughed up.”</p>
<p />
<p>Trump’s fellow bully Bolton also engages in abusive behavior. Melody Townsel, working on a USAID project in Kyrgyzstan, became the object of Bolton’s wrath in 1994. Townsel had complained about incompetence, poor contract performance and inadequate funding of the project by a contractor Bolton represented. In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Townsel wrote that Bolton “proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door, and generally behaving like a madman.” Townsel claimed Bolton threatened employees and contractors who refused to cooperate with him. She maintained Bolton’s behavior “wasn’t just unforgivable, it was pathological.”</p>
<p>Carl W. Ford, former Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research, and a conservative Republican, called Bolton a “kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy” who “abuses his authority with little people,” characterizing him as a “serial abuser.” Bolton chairs the Gatestone Institute, which publishes hateful, racist anti-Muslim rhetoric, calling refugees rapists and hosts of infectious diseases.</p>
<p>Bolton was such a lightning rod that in 2005, even the GOP-controlled&#160; <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/22/17153338/john-bolton-national-security-adviser-trump-hr-mcmaster" type="external">Senate refused to confirm him</a>&#160;as US ambassador to the United Nations. To avoid the need for Senate confirmation, George W. Bush named Bolton to the post in a recess appointment.</p>
<p>But Bolton doesn’t just bully individuals. He pushed for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, advocates military attacks on North Korea and Iran, favors Israel’s annexation of the Palestinian West Bank, and falsely claimed that Cuba had biological weapons.</p>
<p>As undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security in the Bush administration, Bolton was instrumental in withdrawing the United States from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which&#160; <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43811-us-refusal-to-negotiate-with-russia-increases-likelihood-of-nuclear-war" type="external">heightened the risk of nuclear war with Russia</a>.</p>
<p>Anthony J. Blinken, deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, wrote in The New York Times, “Mr. Bolton had a habit of twisting intelligence to back his bellicosity and sought to remove anyone who objected.”</p>
<p>Colin Kahl and Jon Wolf, writing in Foreign Policy, described Bolton’s “pattern of warping and misusing intelligence to build the case for war with rogue states; a disdain for allies and multilateral institutions; a blind faith in US military power and the benefits of regime change; and a tendency to see the ends as justifying the means, however horrific.”</p>
<p>When he left his position at USAID in the late 1980s, Bolton’s colleagues presented him with a bronzed hand grenade.</p>
<p>Bolton Eschews Diplomacy and Slams the UN</p>
<p>Bolton sees every international situation as an opportunity to make war, notwithstanding the United Nations Charter that mandates the peaceful resolution of disputes and forbids military force except in self-defense.</p>
<p>After two world wars claimed millions of lives, countries around the globe—including the United States—came together and established the United Nations system, “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”</p>
<p>Yet in 1994, Bolton famously claimed, “there is no such thing as the United Nations.” He stated caustically, “If the UN Secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”</p>
<p>When Bolton officially withdrew the US signature from the International Criminal Court treaty, he declared it “the happiest moment of my government service.”</p>
<p>Bolton Led the Charge to Invade Iraq</p>
<p>Bolton <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/22/17153338/john-bolton-national-security-adviser-trump-hr-mcmaster" type="external">led the charge to invade Iraq</a>&#160;and forcibly change its regime in 2003, falsely claiming that President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In 2002, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter affirmed that Hussein had destroyed 90-95% of its WMD; the remaining 5%, Ritter said, “doesn’t even constitute a weapons program . . . just because we can’t account for it doesn’t mean Iraq retains it. There’s no evidence Iraq retains this material.”</p>
<p>To bolster the case for war, Bolton pushed Bush to include in his State of the Union address the false statement that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger, over the objection of the State Department.</p>
<p>Before the US invaded Iraq, Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was no evidence Hussein had any viable nuclear program. Hans Blix, chief inspector of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, verified that weapons inspectors had found no evidence of WMD.</p>
<p>In 2002, Bolton orchestrated the ouster of Jose Bustani, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to prevent him from inspecting and revealing that Hussein had no chemical weapons. When Bustani argued he should stay in the post,&#160; <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/30/deconstructed-podcast-will-john-bolton-get-us-all-killed/" type="external">Bolton threatened</a>, “You have to be ready to face the consequences, because we know where your kids live.”</p>
<p>No WMD were found after the US invasion of Iraq. Nearly one million Iraqis were killed and the US-led regime change led to a vacuum of leadership that was filled by ISIS.</p>
<p>A 2006 report prepared under the direction of former Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) concluded that “members of the Bush Administration misstated, overstated, and manipulated intelligence with regards to linkages between Iraq and Al Qaeda; the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iraq; the acquisition of aluminum tubes to be used as uranium centrifuges; and the acquisition of uranium from Niger.” Those “misstatements were in contradiction of known countervailing intelligence information, and were the result of political pressure and manipulation.” A key source of that pressure and manipulation was Bolton.</p>
<p>In spite of the horror the US military unleashed on Iraq 15 years ago, Bolton wrote in 2016 that the removal of Hussein was “a military success of stunning scope and effectiveness, achieved in just three weeks.”</p>
<p>After the disastrous US invasion of Iraq, Bolton tried to get the Iran file removed from ElBaradei in order to lay the groundwork for an unjustified attack on Iran.</p>
<p>Bolton Wants to Rip Up the Iran Nuclear Agreement</p>
<p>Bolton <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/opinion/to-stop-irans-bomb-bomb-iran.html" type="external">favors bombing Iran and changing its regime</a>&#160;and he&#160; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/beyond-the-iran-nuclear-deal-1516044178" type="external">opposes the Iran Nuclear Agreement</a>. He has advocated an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and encouraged the United States to support it.</p>
<p>In the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action&#160;(JCPOA), Iran agreed to cut back its nuclear program and in return, received billions of dollars of relief from punishing sanctions. Iran has complied with its obligations under the deal, says a bipartisan group of over 100 national security veterans called the National Coalition to Prevent Nuclear Weapons.</p>
<p>Under the&#160;US Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, the president must decide every 90 days whether Iran remains in compliance with the JCPOA and whether the agreement continues to serve US interests. Trump reluctantly certified Iran’s compliance in April and July 2017. But in October, to the consternation of his secretary of state, secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the agreement. He did not, however, pull out of the deal at that time.</p>
<p>On May 12, Trump will decide whether or not to end US participation in the agreement. Bolton and CIA director Mike Pompeo, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, both favor renouncing the deal. If the US breaches the agreement, Iran may well resume the unlimited production of nuclear fuel.</p>
<p>“Bolton is an unhinged advocate for waging World War III,” according to Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council. “Bolton now represents the greatest threat to the United States,” he added, stating, “Trump may have just effectively declared war on Iran.”</p>
<p>Bolton Wants to Attack North Korea</p>
<p>In February, contrary to the overwhelming weight of legal authority, Bolton argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that mounting a first strike on North Korea would comply with international law.</p>
<p>Bolton stated on Fox News, “I think the only diplomatic option left is to end the regime in North Korea by effectively having the South take it over.” During another Fox appearance, Bolton declared, “the way you eliminate the North Korean nuclear program is to eliminate North Korea.” He maintained that North Korea having nuclear weapons was worse than the “millions” of North and South Koreans who would be killed if the US attacked North Korea.</p>
<p>If Trump destroys the Iran deal, that will send a dangerous message to Pyongyang that his word cannot be trusted. North and South Korea are slated to meet in April and Trump has indicated he will meet with North Korean President Kim Jong-Un. Diplomacy at this moment is critical.</p>
<p>Bolton has provocatively suggested a linkage between Iran and North Korea on nuclear weapons. In January, he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Little is known, at least publicly, about longstanding Iranian-North Korean cooperation on nuclear and ballistic-missile technology. It is foolish to play down Tehran’s threat because of Pyongyang’s provocations. They are two sides of the same coin.”</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42220-in-iran-and-north-korea-trump-is-playing-with-nuclear-fire" type="external">dangers</a>&#160;inherent in following Bolton’s favored policies in Iran and North Korea cannot be overestimated.</p>
<p>Bolton Falsely Claimed Cuba Had Biological Weapons</p>
<p>Bolton argued unsuccessfully for the inclusion of Cuba in Bush’s “axis of evil” (which consisted of Iraq, Iran and North Korea). Bolton advocated a military attack on Cuba one year before Bush invaded Iraq. After Bolton falsely claimed Cuba was developing a bio-warfare capacity, a congressional investigation found no evidence to support such an allegation.</p>
<p>As Nicole Deller and John Burroughs from the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy have documented, Bolton is widely credited with the defeat of the Protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, which would have created an inspection system to protect us against those deadly weapons.</p>
<p>Bolton Wants to Give ‘Pieces’ of Palestine to Jordan and Egypt</p>
<p>Bolton’s solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to give “pieces” of Gaza to Egypt and “pieces” of the West Bank to Jordan since, he thinks, Palestine is composed of “bits and pieces” of the former Ottoman Empire.</p>
<p>In January, Bolton wrote in The Hill, “Once it becomes clear the two-state solution is finally dead, Jordan should&#160;again be asked to exercise control over suitably delineated portions of the&#160;West Bank and have the monarchy’s religious role for holy sites like the&#160;Temple Mount reaffirmed. Accepting Jordan’s sovereignty would actually&#160;benefit Palestinians, as would Egyptian sovereignty over Gaza, by tying&#160;these areas into viable, functioning states, not to the illusion of “Palestine.”</p>
<p>Neither Jordan nor Egypt supports this proposal, and Palestinians are vehemently opposed to it. Jewish Voice for Peace stated, “The appointment of Bolton is a complete disaster for the Middle East, the US, and the entire world.”</p>
<p>Bolton’s Appointment Is ‘a Disaster for Our Country’</p>
<p>The National Security Adviser’s job is to inform the president of the different options that affect national security, briefing him on the National Security Council’s findings. Bolton is such an ideologue, he will invariably slant his advice toward waging war. Bolton is so extreme, he reportedly promised Trump he “wouldn’t start any wars” if appointed, according to CNN. In light of Trump’s aversion to reading daily intelligence reports, Bolton will play an even greater role in the formulation of policy.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, National Security Adviser is not a cabinet position, so Bolton doesn’t need Senate confirmation.</p>
<p>Former President Jimmy Carter said in an interview with USA Today that Bolton’s appointment is “a disaster for our country,” adding it may be “one of the worst mistakes” of the Trump presidency.</p>
<p>But as Stormy Daniels and Robert Mueller close in on Trump, the president will seek to create a major distraction. With bully Bolton egging him on, that may well be a military attack on North Korea or Iran. The consequences would prove disastrous.</p> | John Bolton Is Just the Kind of Bully Donald Trump Admires | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/john-bolton-is-just-the-kind-of-bully-donald-trump-admires/ | 2018-04-06 | 4 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">Pat Robertson</a> today talked about a gay man who tried to turn straight by marrying a woman that homosexuality is an "obsession," and said&#160;the man has "a compulsion," and&#160;added, "I think it is somehow related to demonic possession."</p>
<p>Robertson says the man "was hungry for it," "it didn't matter who he did it with," and said the man, Sean, was "trolling for cheap sex."</p>
<p>Robertson says "It's time in society we say certain things are wrong." Sadly, he's not referring to his own advice.</p>
<p>The announcer says Sean longed for a family as he grew older. If only the Pat Robertsons of the world didn't make Sean and countless millions like him think they need to marry someone of the opposite sex to have a family. How twisted is that?</p>
<p>The announcer also says, "It took a long time for his marriage to heal," and adds the healing came from Sean's "repentance and deliverance from his homosexual lifestyle." Right?</p>
<p>Sadly, Sean says he no longer has to "be compelled to act out the sinful nature."</p>
<p />
<p>Thanks to Brian Tashman at <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-says-homosexuality-related-demonic-possession" type="external">Right Wing Watch</a> for the video.</p>
<p>Tagged as: <a href="" type="internal">cheap sex</a>, <a href="" type="internal">christian fundamentalism</a>, <a href="" type="internal">compulsion</a>, <a href="" type="internal">criticism of islam</a>, <a href="" type="internal">demonic possession</a>, <a href="" type="internal">homophobia</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Homosexuality</a>, <a href="" type="internal">married</a>, <a href="" type="internal">obsession</a>, <a href="" type="internal">pat</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Pat Robertson</a>, <a href="" type="internal">regent university</a>, <a href="" type="internal">robertson</a>, <a href="" type="internal">sean</a>, <a href="" type="internal">social issues</a>, <a href="" type="internal">somehow</a></p>
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<p>We invite you to <a href="http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001whLQo73KzGhEjdskYG07rHNy_XoDDkSBBO4INZHx6oD9kfp2yeeQAJeMQUu9oTviZa0VEl5k0rNiLifxlZsOFScMz8rVGmIaN-FFOO3GTKc%3D" type="external">sign up for our new mailing list</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheNewCivilRightsMovement&amp;amp;loc=en_US" type="external">subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email</a> or <a href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/thenewcivilrightsmovement" type="external">RSS</a>.</p>
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<p>In the backyard of a house in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, Sebastian Castro is teaching a class on how to plant marijuana from trimmings.</p>
<p>“You can produce about 350 grams of cannabis from six or seven plants,” he says.</p>
<p>What Castro is teaching here used to be illegal in Uruguay. But last December, Uruguay became the first country to legalize the production, distribution and sale of marijuana.</p>
<p>The regulations are expected to be issued sometime in April.</p>
<p>Once that happens, Castro hopes to launch a legal business selling seeds to producers.</p>
<p>“I’m a gardener by trade so it would be ideal for me to merge planting cannabis with what I do for a living. It would be like putting the cherry on top,” he says.</p>
<p>Castro is 35, and he’s been planting marijuana for his own use for over 16 years. Recently, he joined a new network of 140 growers who want to kickstart a larger project -- supplying pot for pharmacies and medical marijuana clubs.</p>
<p>“This is going to create new opportunities for small growers so they can make a dignified living working with marijuana,” he says.</p>
<p>It’s not just about business. Castro says the law will go a long way toward changing the negative image of growers and users. For too long, he says, people like him have been marginalized for growing pot.</p>
<p>You had to be totally clandestine, he says, and you were treated like “scum.”</p>
<p>Milagros Gallero also knows what it’s like be on the fringes. She runs the Network of Drug Users and Cannabis Growers out of her home. The police raided it a few years ago. For her, the new law is a form of rescue.</p>
<p>Gallero, who has two kids, struggled for years with an addiction to cocaine paste, a huge problem in Uruguay. Now, she helps others in similar situations, particularly women. She says the law could provide a legal source of income for single mothers who used to face jail time for selling drugs.</p>
<p>“They do it because they need a plate of food to feed their children,” Gallero says.</p>
<p />
<p>Julio Rey is the president of the National Federation of Cannabis Growers.</p>
<p>Valeria Fernández</p>
<p>“Millions of dollars that have gone to drug traffickers can now go into education and drug prevention,” she says.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>But most Uruguayans aren’t so optimistic about what the new law will bring. In a recent survey, more than half said they don’t support it.</p>
<p>One of the opponents, Verónica Alonso, an opposition lawmaker, argues that the law is too weak and should be scrapped.</p>
<p>She says there’s no way to enforce the legal limit of six plants that people 18 or older will be able to grow at home, and she worries that some might grow more and start selling pot to teenagers.&#160;</p>
<p>That’s not going to happen, according to Julio Calzada, the secretary general of Uruguay’s National Drug Council, the agency in charge of implementing the new law. People will have to be licensed at every point, he says, from home growing, to purchase, to commercial production.</p>
<p>“This is not about liberalizing the market,” says Calzada. “It’s about regulating a market that already has 150,000 users a year.”</p>
<p>This will also put an end to a legal paradox in Uruguay, where it was against the law to buy pot but not to use it, he says, and it will take the country out of the war on drugs that’s been so costly in places like Mexico.</p>
<p>“The 60,000 dead [there] are the collateral damage of the war against the cartels and I think they make too all clear that the military approach doesn’t work,” he says.</p>
<p>The new law might not work for the rest of Latin America or the United States, says Calzada, but for now, it’s the answer for Uruguay.</p> | Pot growers in Uruguay come out of the shadows | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-04-02/pot-growers-uruguay-come-out-shadows | 2014-04-02 | 3 |
<p>The ex-husband of a woman whose home is thought to be at the center of a deadly explosion in Indianapolis says a faulty furnace may have led to the blast overnight Saturday, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/12/indianapolis-explosion/1700053/" type="external">The Associated Press reported</a>.</p>
<p>John Shirley's ex-wife Monserrate Shirley lived at the home with their 12-year-old-daughter.</p>
<p>He told the AP he got a text from his daughter more than a week ago telling him that the heat was out. It later came back on, but he told the AP "I bet you anything that's why it happened."</p>
<p>Gas company officials later told the AP they never received any faulty furnace complaints.</p>
<p>Indianapolis officials on Monday warned that investigations into the explosion "will take some time, the AP reported.</p>
<p>Local public safety director Troy Riggs today said authorities need time to "forensically look at everything," while investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the federal Department of Transportation will be assisting with the probe, according to Indiana's representative Andre Carson, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/12/officials-seek-cause-indianapolis-explosion-that-leveled-neighborhood-and/" type="external">said AP</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>The mysterious blast late Saturday killed at least two people, injured seven, flattened two homes and damaged at least 18 others, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blast-levels-two-homes-indianapolis-several-hurt-075925173.html;_ylt=A2KJjalyS6BQ0WcALDTQtDMD" type="external">according to Reuters.&#160;</a></p>
<p>"There's a significant number of homes that have sustained damage, including two that have been completely destroyed, no cause has been ruled out," said Marc Lotter, a spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard.</p>
<p>"The investigation is ongoing."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/121107/advice-for-obama" type="external">Dear Mr President: Advice for a re-elected Obama</a></p>
<p>Some 200 people were evacuated to an elementary school and seven people were hospitalized with injuries after the blast and fire, fire officials <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-levels-homes-indianapolis-2-dead-134556492.html;_ylt=A2KJjaisTaBQeDAARyjQtDMD" type="external">told the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>The cause of the explosion (or explosions) is not yet known, but <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/11/several-injuries-reported-after-explosion-at-indianapolis-home-sets-others/#ixzz2BvfGjJHx" type="external">Fox News said</a>&#160;the sound could be heard for miles. The force of the blast "shattered windows, caved-in walls" and knocked "garage doors... off their hinges," <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-levels-homes-indianapolis-2-dead-134556492.html;_ylt=A2KJjaisTaBQeDAARyjQtDMD" type="external">survivors told the AP</a>.</p>
<p>Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman Lieutenant Bonnie Hensley said the blast blew up two homes a little after 11 p.m. Saturday, causing a fire that spread to two dozen neighborhood homes, <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-explosion-levels-home-damages-others-in-indianapolis-20121110,0,6224901.story" type="external">reported The Chicago Tribune</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>"This looks like a war zone; it really does," Hensley <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/11/indianapolis-explosion-homes-fire/1697195/" type="external">told AP</a>.</p>
<p>The fire had been brought under control as of 12:30 a.m. local time Sunday, officials <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-explosion-levels-home-damages-others-in-indianapolis-20121110,0,6224901.story" type="external">told The Chicago Tribune</a>.</p>
<p>Here's a local video report from Fox 59's WXIN in Indianapolis:&#160;</p>
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<p>#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }</p> | Indianapolis blast blamed on faulty furnace (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-11-12/indianapolis-blast-blamed-faulty-furnace-video | 2012-11-12 | 3 |
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<p>Lagardere said on Tuesday it sold its 7.4% stake in Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence &amp; Space Co. for $2.97 billion, as the French conglomerate looks to focus more on its media businesses.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The company, which helped found EADS, made the sale through a private placement. Lagardere has said it will pay a one-time dividend and reduce its debt using proceeds from a sale of its stake in EADS.</p>
<p>“Upon completion of this transaction, Lagardere will have sold its entire stake in EADS,” Lagardere said in a statement.</p>
<p>EADS said it purchased a 1.61% stake valued at $652 million, as part of a share-buyback program it announced last year.</p>
<p>Lagardere owns one of the world’s largest book publishers, Hachette Livre, in addition to online businesses and television rights for sports leagues.</p> | Lagardere Sells EADS Stake for $2.97B | true | http://foxbusiness.com/news/2013/04/09/lagardere-sells-eads-stake-for-27-billion.html | 2016-01-25 | 0 |
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<p>A: I would not advise it for two reasons.</p>
<p>First, as the hostess of the event you would not lead the buffet line. Although you are a guest of honor in a sense, you are also the hostess. Graciousness and care for your guests is part of your responsibility. If you think it necessary to designate a leader, ask someone else.</p>
<p>Secondly, people will want to speak to you personally and share their condolences and their stories of your husband at this reception. If you are the first to sit down and begin eating, it will be awkward for those trying to talk to you and it will create continuous interruption for everyone at your table.</p>
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<p>Also, this will be a difficult time for you. Your emotions may be easier to deal with if you are not confined but can easily circulate in the room. If you are hungry, eat, but you don’t have to make partaking in the meal your primary concern.</p>
<p>Dear Thelma: I’m a newspaper carrier. I do my deliveries so well I’ve become invisible. My customers have forgotten I exist. I have several hundred customers and some customers receive two or three different publications every day – all reliably delivered by me. Newspaper prices have risen rapidly the last few years, and more customers have chosen to “skip” the carrier’s tip option when renewing their subscriptions. They have also chosen to “forget” the carrier at Christmas. Every Christmas I purchase and send out calendar cards as a reminder I’m still around, but customers still don’t acknowledge I was instrumental in their year’s reading investment.</p>
<p>I tried to educate my customers on how little carriers actually earn, and I was anonymously told I had no class. I don’t like whining or begging for recognition that should be given freely when I do good work. How can I and other newspaper carriers professionally connect with customers to remind them of this year’s excellent delivery service and encourage them to tip?</p>
<p>A: You are in a difficult situation. Most people are in direct contact with their service providers who are tipped. They see the server bring their food to to the table efficiently or the stylist cut their hair as they want it. Even if it’s brief, a relationship is established, an assessment is made and a tip is decided upon and given.</p>
<p>I imagine that the custom of tipping the newspaper carrier began when carriers did have a direct relationship with their customers. The carrier collected the fees personally or the reader saw the afternoon paper delivered by a kid on a bike. Today, if a newspaper carrier is doing a good job, he is invisible. He may only be thought of if the paper ends up under the car in the driveway or gets soaked.</p>
<p>I think that placing a simple holiday greeting card in one of your delivered newspapers with your address is fine. It reminds customers that there is a person behind the paper on their porch and it gives them the information they need to send you a tip if they choose. People who are inclined to tip will need nothing more. But you must remember that while tips may be customary, they are always optional and at the discretion of the customer. As you found, trying to educate customers on how little you earn applies a pressure to which people don’t respond well.</p>
<p>Acknowledging good service and good manners never go out of style.</p>
<p>Ask a question at <a href="http://thelmadomenici.com" type="external">thelmadomenici.com</a>. Thelma Domenici is CEO of Thelma Domenici &amp; Associates, offering corporate coaching and contemporary social skills development programs to all ages.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Widow has duties of hostess at memorial | false | https://abqjournal.com/302460/widow-has-duties-of-hostess-at-memorial.html | 2 |
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<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Thanks to the support of OPEC, oil prices were relatively stable in the low $50s for the first two months of the year. However, that changed last month, when crude slumped into the upper $40s on renewed oversupply concerns. That unexpected dive weighed on oil stocks, especially those that were relying on $50-plus oil to fuel their bullish drilling plans, which investors now fear might be tooaggressive. Among those stockshit the hardest were PDC Energy (NASDAQ: PDCE), Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL), QEP Resources (NYSE: QEP), Carrizo Oil &amp; Gas (NASDAQ: CRZO), Sanchez Energy (NYSE: SN).</p>
<p>The plunging price of crude had the greatest impact on Sanchez Energy's stock, which slumped more than 20% last month. What spooked investors was that Sanchez recently spent more than $1 billion to bulk up on its Eagle Ford shale acreage. That deal positioned the company to achieve 10% compound annual production growth over the next three years, while also improving its financial metrics. However, Sanchez based those projections on higher oil prices, which might no longer be in the forecast. That had investors worrying that Sanchez might struggle if crude continued to slide.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>March was also a rough month for investors in Bakken Shale-focused Whiting Petroleum after the stock plunged nearly 17%. One factor weighing on the stock was that it unveiled a bold capex budget at the end of February, planning to double spending to drive a 23% increase in production by the end of the year. That said, the company based its budget on $55 oil, which appears to be overly optimistic. That's one reason analysts at UBS downgraded the stock last month from neutral to sell, citing the company's decision to outspend cash flow as a greater risk given that it has $1.5 billion in future debt maturities to address. These factors make it one of the most likely drillers to scale back its drilling plans if crude doesn't improve.</p>
<p>Carrizo Oil &amp; Gas is another shale driller that as an elevated leverage ratio, which puts its ambitious growth plan at risk should crude prices remain weak. Overall, the company is targeting 20% compound annual oil growth over the next three years. However, it needs higher oil prices to give it the cash flow to make that plan work. That said, analysts didn't share the market's worries last month as Williams Capital and Seaport Global both upgraded it to a buy, citing its recent sell-off as a buying opportunity. Both like its strong position in the Eagle Ford and see a potential catalyst in its Delaware Basin acreage, where Seaport believes it could make an acquisition to boost its growth prospects.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, analysts seemed to play a role in PDC Energy's slump last month. Both Tudor Pickering and UBS initiated coverage with a hold and neutral rating, respectively, while BMO Capital Markets reiterated its hold rating. Analysts seem concerned with the fact that PDC Energy plans to spend up to $775 million this year -- about $200 million more than projected cash flow -- on an aggressive plan to boost production by more than 40%. The concern is that if PDC Energy and its peers produce too much, it could cause oil prices to keep falling, which would lead to a larger outspend and weaken the company's credit metrics.</p>
<p>Analysts also weren't that enthusiastic about what lies ahead for QEP Resources. UBS, for example, initiated coverage at neutral, while Mizuho downgraded the stock from buy to neutral. Driving that downgrade was the view that the company's productivity in the Bakken was in decline, and that it had an uncertain outlook. In 2017, for example, the company will spend up to $1 billion in capital, allocating 60% of that budget to the Permian Basin, which will fuel 70% production growth in the region. That said, companywide output growth will only be about 5% at the mid-point, which is a much lower rate than rivals. Further, if crude remains low, QEP Resources might need to cut spending, which would affect growth.</p>
<p>The slump in oil prices last month sent shivers down the backs of investors and analysts alike. That's because a further deterioration in the oil market might force weaker shale drillers to scale back their ambitious growth plans so they don't cause more harm to their already-fragile balance sheets. It's a reminder that while these companies offer higher growth potential, they're also riskier because they need steadily improving oil prices to fuel their aggressive plans. Because of that, risk-adverse investors are better off looking elsewhere for shale-fueled growth.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Whiting PetroleumWhen 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=4362eca9-80c7-4be5-bba0-406424aa38c7&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 Whiting Petroleum 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=4362eca9-80c7-4be5-bba0-406424aa38c7&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/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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> | Slumping Crude Prices Caused Investors to Flee These 5 Oil Stocks in March | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/06/slumping-crude-prices-caused-investors-to-flee-these-5-oil-stocks-in-march.html | 2017-04-06 | 0 |
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<p>The list includes Beethoven’s “Fidelio;” the U.S. premiere of “Dr. Sun Yat-sen;” Bizet’s “Carmen;” Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale;” and Stravinsky’s “Le Rossignol” paired with Mozart’s “Impresario.”</p>
<p>The works span 400 years — 1786 to 2011 — and include five new productions and the theater’s first double bill since 1993. The season will bring an international cast of stars, including Italy’s Anna Caterina Antonacci as “Carmen.” The bill encompasses six languages — French, Italian, German, English, Russian and Mandarin — a Santa Fe record, MacKay added.</p>
<p>Not as well-known stateside, Antonacci is a huge star in Europe, MacKay said, standing next to a poster-sized 2011 Opera News cover of the soprano. She last appeared on U.S. soil in San Francisco in 1998.</p>
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<p>The entire cast of “Carmen,” perhaps the most popular opera in the repertoire, is international, he added.</p>
<p>The Opera will pair Mozart’s rarely performed “The Impresario” with Stravinsky’s “Le Rossignol.” The season will mark the 100th anniversary of the latter’s 1914 Paris premiere. The SFO last performed it in 1973.</p>
<p>“Stravinsky holds a very sentimental place in the heart of the Santa Fe Opera,” MacKay said. “It was his presence here at the height of his fame that gave our fledgling company its first bona fides.”</p>
<p>Sung in newly translated English, “The Impresario” was commissioned by the Austrian emperor for a summer festival, MacKay said.</p>
<p>“It was a play with music, so there was a lot more talking than singing,” he continued. “There are a whole lot of in-jokes in 1786 that we might not get.”</p>
<p>The libretto tells the story of a world-weary emperor facing two prima donnas auditioning for an opera. The orchestra will incorporate Mozart’s early concert arias into the score. The setting is 1920s Paris and the auditioning characters assume the roles in “Le Rossignol.”</p>
<p>“It has some sort of resonance,” MacKay said, laughing. “The two divas are competing for the same role in the opera.”</p>
<p>“Le Rossignol” is based on the fairy tale “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen and takes place in ancient China. The emperor has become fascinated by the nightingale, who sings for him on his deathbed.</p>
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<p>“The premise is to show the healing power of music,” MacKay said.</p>
<p>“Dr. Sun Yat-sen” commemorates the centennial of China’s 1911 Revolution. Called the “Father of the Nation,” Sun Yat-sen helped overthrow the monarchy. The struggles of both his political and personal life form the basis for the opera. Composer Huang Ruo says the music is neither strictly Western nor Chinese. The four Chinese members of the cast are all making their Santa Fe debuts. Warren Mok will sing the title role.</p>
<p>MacKay recently returned from a Hong Kong trip to see the composer.</p>
<p>“I visited the Sun Yat-sen Museum,” he said. “Sun Yat-sen was the father of modern China. It’s remarkable how much Warren looks like Sun.”</p>
<p>A challenge to cast due to its intensity and the required endurance, “Fidelio” (1805) addresses themes of personal sacrifice, heroism and triumph. Alex Penda, who has won international acclaim since her 2000 Santa Fe debut in Rossini’s “Ermione,” will sing the role of Leonore.</p>
<p>One of the great masterpieces of Italian comic opera, Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” has appeared on the Santa Fe stage only once, in 1983. Director and costume designer Laurent Pelly (“Cinderella,” “Platée,” and “La Traviata”) will offer a new take on the classic. Andrew Shore will return in the title role.</p>
<p>MacKay also announced the appointment of Harry Bicket as the opera’s chief conductor, effective Oct. 1. Bicket came to Santa Fe during a break from performances of “Julius Caesar” with David Daniels and Natalie Dessay at the Metropolitan Opera. The New York Times hailed “the excellent conductor … (who) draws a lithe, lyrical and stylish performance of this great score.” The selection came after months of deliberation by the orchestra committee, MacKay said.</p>
<p>Born in Liverpool and educated at Oxford and the Royal College of Music, Bicket has appeared in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world, including Covent Garden, the Bavarian State Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic and many others. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in “Rodelinda” with Renée Fleming in 2004.</p>
<p>“To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect, but, like most people, I was very quickly seduced by the Santa Fe magic,” Bicket said. “I’m so thrilled, I already have the score (of “Fidelio”) with me when I’m traveling and delayed at airports.”</p>
<p>Board president Carey Ramos announced the inception of a tailgating contest this summer to honor the opera’s legendary candles, costumes and candelabra parking lot crowd. Prizes will be awarded in categories including the most original, fanciful and fabulous creations, and a “Best in Show” prize. Classical KHFM, 95.5 FM, will broadcast live from the scene beginning June 28.</p>
<p>“We’re going to be picking some interesting judges,” Ramos added.</p>
<p>The opera will open its 2013 season in good financial shape, MacKay said. Last year, seats were at 90 percent capacity.</p>
<p>“Overall, we continue to be financially stable,” he said. “We haven’t had to reduce the number of performances or productions.”</p> | SFO’s 2014 works to span 400 years | false | https://abqjournal.com/192375/sfos-2013-works-to-span-400-years.html | 2013-04-25 | 2 |
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