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<p>The publisher of Arizona's largest newspaper on Friday joined a growing list of women who say a top Republican state lawmaker subjected them to inappropriate sexual comments or actions, allegations that led to his suspension from the chairmanship of a powerful committee.</p>
<p>Arizona Republic Publisher Mi-Ai Parrish wrote in a column online that state Rep. Don Shooter told her last year during a meeting in his office that he had done everything on his "bucket list," except for "those Asian twins in Mexico." Parrish is Asian-American.</p>
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<p>Other lawmakers, entertainment figures, businesspeople and media leaders have been accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct in the wake of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Lawmakers facing such complaints in Colorado and Minnesota also were removed or suspended from their posts as heads of legislative committees this week.</p>
<p>In Arizona, Shooter would not comment about Parrish's column but has denied other allegations revealed this week.</p>
<p>Republican House Speaker J.D. Mesnard suspended Shooter from heading the appropriations committee pending the results of an investigation. Though the Arizona Legislature doesn't return until January, committees Shooter sits on are meeting.</p>
<p>"Until the investigations have run their course, it's just not practical for him to be involved in that capacity," Mesnard said, adding he hoped they would be completed by January.</p>
<p>The speaker also said that because of the number and nature of the allegations, a "bipartisan sexual harassment investigative team" he appointed will hire an outside attorney.</p>
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<p>Shooter is already the subject of an investigation launched by the House this week after a lawmaker accused him of repeatedly making unwanted advances.</p>
<p>Shooter denied the allegations from Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita and accused her of pursuing an affair with a House staffer. Several other women — lawmakers, lobbyists and Parrish — have come forward with similar accusations since Ugenti-Rita gave a television interview that aired Tuesday, including allegations of sexually tinged comments or unwanted touching.</p>
<p>Shooter issued a statement earlier this week saying he requested an investigation, and "therefore I am unable to comment further except to provide my full support and cooperation." He has since referred questions to his attorney, who hasn't elaborated.</p>
<p>There also have been allegations that other, unnamed male lawmakers harassed women, and Mesnard acknowledged that "rumors are flying fast and furious" about who is possibly involved. He promised investigations of any formal complaints.</p>
<p>Mesnard appointed two House attorneys to lead an investigation into the claims. They will be joined by several staffers from the Democratic and Republican caucuses.</p>
<p>Parrish wrote that she initially brushed off Shooter's comment, chalking it up as "just another remark in a long, long list of offensive, obnoxious, ignorant, destructive things said to me and others by people with some power or sway."</p>
<p>But she said she now realizes "it wasn't OK. And it wasn't OK for me to be OK with it. For me to put up with it. To laugh it off, to excuse it, to use it as a cocktail-party tale."</p>
<p>Parrish serves as president and publisher of the Arizona Republic and previously held the same jobs at The Kansas City Star and The Idaho Statesman. She has twice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror, is a longtime member of the Asian American Journalists Association and serves on several boards, including of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.</p>
<p>Shooter wielded considerable power as head of the House Appropriations Committee and is known around the Capitol as a politically incorrect jokester who threw booze-laden parties in his office on the last day of legislative sessions.</p>
<p>The Yuma lawmaker was elected to the Senate in 2010 and led that chamber's appropriations committee before moving to the House in 2016.</p>
<p>Minority Democrats and the state's most powerful business group, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce &amp; Industry, have called for him to resign.</p>
<p>The investigation could lead to a formal ethics probe by the House, which could expel him with a two-thirds vote for "disorderly behavior."</p>
<p>Asked if the Shooter allegations indicate a culture problem in the chamber, Mesnard said it is a broader issue.</p>
<p>"I would submit to you that we have a culture problem in the House, in the state and in the country," he said. "This isn't just unique to Arizona. This is happening all over the place, whether you're talking Hollywood or newsroom studios.</p>
<p>"Clearly we have probably tolerated things in the past that we shouldn't have and people are standing up, and rightly so," Mesnard said.</p> | Arizona lawmaker accused of sex remarks loses committee post | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/10/publisher-says-arizona-lawmaker-made-offensive-remarks.html | 2017-11-10 | 0 |
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<p>Shares of clinical-stage biopharma Cara Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CARA) rose over 11% today after the company announced positive results from part A of a phase 2/3 trial for chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus. The intravenously administered drug candidate, CR845, met both its primary and secondary endpoints for the severe itching condition, which is common among patients with chronic kidney disease and for which there are no approved treatments.</p>
<p>The drug achieved a 68% reduction in itching compared to placebo after eight weeks of treatment and was well tolerated.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>The latest development marks yet another positive development for investors in the last six months. While CR845 will soon enter the pivotal part B of the chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus trial, the study is not the most advanced in the company's pipeline.</p>
<p>As investors are well aware, Cara Therapeutics' stock has more than doubled since late 2016 on enthusiasm and optimism for the company's novel approach to treating chronic pain and postoperative pain. That includes CR845 and CR701, which are more selective at targeting certain nervous system receptors that trigger pain responses while sparing others that can cause debilitating side effects. If successfully commercialized, they could represent a new class of pain drugs that have little or no risk of depression, nausea, vomiting, and addiction liability.</p>
<p>Cara Therapeutics must now meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to design part B of the trial. But make no mistake, the latest results are very encouraging for the company and investors. That's especially true considering the potential market opportunity. Pruritus is most commonly associated with chronic kidney disease, which sees over 200,000 new cases in the United States every year. If the company becomes the first and only to have a long-term treatment option, then it could be handsomely rewarded.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Cara TherapeuticsWhen 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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx" 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;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Here's Why Cara Therapeutics Rose as Much as 11.5% Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/28/here-why-cara-therapeutics-rose-as-much-as-115-today.html | 2017-03-28 | 0 |
<p>Shares of planes, trains and automobiles are skidding, and that often spells trouble for the rest of the market. But some analysts and investors aren't heeding the century-old warning sign this time around.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Transportation Average is on track for its first quarterly decline in more than a year, as the index has fallen nearly 3.4% so far this quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 5.3% the final three-month period of the year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The index of 20 of the largest U.S. airlines, railroads and trucking firms is used by some in the market as a proxy to gauge the health of the U.S. economy since those companies are responsible for the vital movement of raw materials, goods and people.</p>
<p>So when the index diverges from the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average, some investors take it as a sign to sell. However, several analysts and investors say the Dow transports' weak performance is due to a spate of downbeat earnings rather than a deeper economic funk.</p>
<p>Analysts specifically pointed to a series of hurricanes in the previous quarter that disrupted thousands of flights among airliners, including United Continental Holdings Inc., American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., and caused service disruptions for railroad operators and shipping companies at a time when most transportation businesses are grappling with rising costs.</p>
<p>"There's pretty good divergence there. But the latest pullback in transports was more due to disappointing third-quarter earnings," said Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, adding that airlines were particularly weak.</p>
<p>Still, the quarterly decline in transport stocks is noteworthy given how closely the two indexes tend to trade. Since 1900, the Dow industrials and the Dow transports have traded above their 200-day trading average in tandem more than 50% of the time, according to data from Ned Davis Research.</p>
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<p>Airlines in the Dow transports were among the hardest-hit stocks. Shares of United have fallen 15% since it reported earnings last month. United said storms like Hurricane Harvey disrupted its operations and caused it to incur higher costs, while the rollout of new low-cost, no-frills fares, known as "Basic Economy," all contributed to a drop in revenue, executives said while discussing third-quarter results.</p>
<p>Both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines reported improved revenue in the previous quarter, while maintaining prices that helped offset rising fuel, labor and other costs. Still, the hurricanes shaved off millions of dollars in profit and revenue at both carriers. American shares have fallen 7.5% since it reported earnings Oct. 26, while Southwest has declined 4.4%.</p>
<p>Railroad companies haven't fared much better in recent months, despite the double-digit gains they had already notched. Norfolk Southern Corp. posted upbeat results last month, beating revenue and profit estimates, yet its stock has fallen 4.4% since it reported earnings Oct. 25. CSX Corp. beat profit expectations but saw revenue fall short due, in part, to service delays that stemmed from the hurricanes and derailments. Its shares have fallen 8% since it released earnings Oct. 17.</p>
<p>Another big laggard in the index: Avis Budget Group Inc. The car-rental company's shares tumbled 19% since it said Nov. 6 that higher fleet costs and weaker international pricing had hurt the car-rental company, causing it to miss earnings and revenue expectation and lower its sales guidance for the remainder of the year.</p>
<p>As the transports index lurches toward its first three-month decline since the second quarter of last year, stock market volatility has picked up slightly relative to much of the rest of the year. That has created a better environment for stock pickers, some investors added.</p>
<p>"Stock disparity is picking up and that's an opportunity for active managers," said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at wealth-management firm Glenmede. "Stocks are showing signs of moving away from one another."</p>
<p>Concerns around how Republicans proceed on their tax overhaul contributed to recent declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, causing the index to snap an eight-week winning streak and swing between gains and losses in recent sessions. Sectors that had been performing better earlier this year, such as industrials, are now lagging, while concerns about the market's health picked up following losses in the junk-bond market.</p>
<p>Lofty valuations, especially among technology companies that have contributed significantly to the market's gains this year, have also kept investors on edge, with some believing those stocks could pull back on geopolitical concerns or due to developments in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>"The albatross for the market is valuations at this point," said Terri Spath, chief investment officer of Sierra Investment Management, an investment firm with $2.7 billion in assets. "They've been too high for a while."</p>
<p>Write to Michael Wursthorn at [email protected]</p>
<p>Shares of planes, trains and automobiles are skidding, and that often spells trouble for the rest of the market. But some analysts and investors aren't heeding the century-old warning sign this time around.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Transportation Average is on track for its first quarterly decline in more than a year, as the index has fallen 3% so far this quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 5.3% the final three-month period of the year.</p>
<p>The index of 20 of the largest U.S. airlines, railroads and trucking firms is used by some in the market as a proxy to gauge the health of the U.S. economy since those companies are responsible for the vital movement of raw materials, goods and people.</p>
<p>So when the index diverges from the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average, some investors take it as a sign to sell. However, several analysts and investors say the Dow transports' weak performance is due to a spate of downbeat earnings rather than a deeper economic funk.</p>
<p>Analysts specifically pointed to a series of hurricanes in the previous quarter that disrupted thousands of flights among airliners, including United Continental Holdings Inc., American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co., and caused service disruptions for railroad operators and shipping companies at a time when most transportation businesses are grappling with rising costs.</p>
<p>"There's pretty good divergence there. But the latest pullback in transports was more due to disappointing third-quarter earnings," said Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer of BNY Mellon Wealth Management, adding that airlines were particularly weak.</p>
<p>Still, the quarterly decline in transport stocks is noteworthy given how closely the two indexes tend to trade. Since 1900, the Dow industrials and the Dow transports have traded above their 200-day trading average in tandem more than 50% of the time, according to data from Ned Davis Research.</p>
<p>Airlines in the Dow transports were among the hardest-hit stocks. Shares of United have fallen 12% since it reported earnings last month. United said storms like Hurricane Harvey disrupted its operations and caused it to incur higher costs, while the rollout of new low-cost, no-frills fares, known as "Basic Economy," all contributed to a drop in revenue, executives said while discussing third-quarter results.</p>
<p>Both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines reported improved revenue in the previous quarter, while maintaining prices that helped offset rising fuel, labor and other costs. Still, the hurricanes shaved off millions of dollars in profit and revenue at both carriers. American shares have fallen 4.6% since it reported earnings on Oct. 26, while Southwest has declined 3%.</p>
<p>Railroad companies haven't fared much better in recent months, despite the double-digit gains they had already notched. Norfolk Southern Corp. posted upbeat results last month, beating revenue and profit estimates, yet its stock has fallen 2.4% since it reported earnings on Oct. 25. CSX Corp. beat profit expectations but saw revenue fall short due, in part, to service delays that stemmed from the hurricanes and derailments. Its shares have fallen 5% since it released earnings Oct. 17.</p>
<p>Another big laggard in the index: Avis Budget Group Inc. The car-rental company's shares tumbled 13.4% since it said on Nov. 6 that higher fleet costs and weaker international pricing had hurt the car-rental company, causing it to miss earnings and revenue expectation and lower its sales guidance for the remainder of the year.</p>
<p>As the transports index lurches toward its first three-month decline since the second quarter of last year, stock market volatility has picked up slightly relative to much of the rest of the year. That has created a better environment for stock pickers, some investors added.</p>
<p>"Stock disparity is picking up and that's an opportunity for active managers," said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at wealth-management firm Glenmede. "Stocks are showing signs of moving away from one another."</p>
<p>Concerns around how Republicans proceed on their tax overhaul contributed to recent declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, causing the index to snap an eight-week winning streak and swing between gains and losses in recent sessions. Sectors that had been performing better earlier this year, such as industrials, are now lagging, while concerns about the market's health picked up following losses in the junk-bond market.</p>
<p>Lofty valuations, especially among technology companies that have contributed significantly to the market's gains this year, have also kept investors on edge, with some believing those stocks could pull back on geopolitical concerns or due to developments in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>"The albatross for the market is valuations at this point," said Terri Spath, chief investment officer of Sierra Investment Management, an investment firm with $2.7 billion in assets. "They've been too high for a while."</p>
<p>Write to Michael Wursthorn at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 21, 2017 18:24 ET (23:24 GMT)</p> | Transport Stocks Fall, But Market Shrugs Off Broader Concerns -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/21/transport-stocks-fall-but-market-shrugs-off-broader-concerns-update.html | 2017-11-21 | 0 |
<p>At least seven members of the same family, including one child, were shot and killed in Piketon, Ohio, on Friday morning. The victims were found on a family compound in the rural southern Ohio county 80 miles east of Cincinnati.</p>
<p>Details about the incident are still unfolding, but a local pastor said that the shootings likely stemmed from a domestic dispute. According to the Pike County Sheriff, the child was a 16-year-old male.</p>
<p>Kids in the U.S. are shot with stunning frequency. A recent Harvard study of gun fatalities in 23 countries found that&#160; <a href="" type="internal">91 percent of child gun deaths</a> in 2010 occurred in the U.S. — a statistic all the more startling because, combined, the other countries have roughly twice the population of the U.S.</p>
<p>The killing is unrelenting. In just the past week, at least 33 kids ages 16 and under were shot, either unintentionally or on purpose, according to an analysis by The Trace of incidents recorded by the Gun Violence Archive. Thirteen died.</p>
<p>At least seven of the children who were shot and killed were five or younger.</p>
<p>Miracle Murray was one of three babies outside a home in Detroit <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/04/neighbors_fear_for_own_childre.html#incart_river_home" type="external">on Monday</a> when gunmen opened fire on the house from a passing car. Miracle was shot in her stroller. Her cousin drove her to the hospital, speeding through red lights, but it was too late. When Miracle arrived at the hospital 15&#160;minutes later, doctors said they couldn’t help her.</p>
<p>Police officials say Miracle might have been targeted in retaliation for the Easter Sunday murder of a three-year-old child last month.</p>
<p>Most of the time when a child is shot in the U.S., the shooter is a family member. In the past week, at least four children were killed by their fathers.</p>
<p>On Monday morning in Seminole County, Florida, Henry Brown stabbed his wife, Chericia Brown, and ran her over with a car. Police stopped him as he tried to flee with his one-year-old daughter and four-year-old son. He fatally shot the children and then himself.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Earlier this year, a judge had granted an injunction to keep Brown away from his wife, determining that he posed an “immediate and present danger of domestic violence.” The order required that he turn over firearms to police. It is not clear whether police ever attempted to force him to do so.</p>
<p>At least two children died in accidental shootings. In Indianapolis, a two-year-old boy <a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2016/04/20/2-year-old-dies-self-inflicted-gunshot-would-northwest-side-police-confirm/83317528/" type="external">shot himself</a> in the shoulder with a gun he found in his mother’s purse, which was on the kitchen counter. He was pronounced dead at a children’s hospital. Prosecutors are still deciding whether to pursue charges against the 23-year-old mother.</p>
<p>Subscribe to receive The Trace’s newsletters on important gun news and analysis.</p>
<p>One juvenile, a 16-year-old boy, was shot after <a href="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/04/16-year-old_injured_in_birming.html#incart_river_index" type="external">breaking into a home</a>. Another was <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/clergy-activists-pray-for-st-louis-teen-killed-in-police/article_29590ac6-5ace-5603-8e7a-d17974b0bde1.html" type="external">killed by police</a> after stealing a car.</p>
<p>In Piketon on Friday afternoon, police were still searching for the shooter who slaughtered a family.</p>
<p>Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican presidential candidate, <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnKasich/status/723537201011822592" type="external">tweeted</a> that the killings were “tragic beyond comprehension.”</p>
<p>[AP Photo/John Minchillo]</p> | Ohio Victim Was Among 13 Children Shot and Killed in America This Week | false | https://thetrace.org/2016/04/ohio-victim-among-13-children-shot-killed-america/ | 2016-04-22 | 3 |
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<p>As Facebook attempts to convince investors at next week’s road show that it deserves a lofty valuation north of $75 billion, the social network is likely to confront understandable skepticism about its fledgling advertising platform.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This doubt is being fueled by the difficulty of accurately measuring the relationship between spending ad dollars on Facebook and a positive impact on the bottom line.</p>
<p>“It tends to be akin to dark matter: People are confident it’s having an effect, but they haven’t been able to quantify it,” said Wes Nichols, CEO of cross-media analytics firm MarketShare.</p>
<p>For Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which are in a careful balancing act between pleasing users and placating data-hungry advertisers, this is a crucial question that needs to be answered in the coming quarters.</p>
<p>After all, Facebook relies on ad sales for 85% of its $3.71 billion in annual revenue and later this month it’s likely to become the largest Internet IPO ever.</p>
<p>“Bringing it to the public market is going to be a big shift in philosophy for the company because they’re going to have drivers forcing them to focus more on the dollar than the user,” said Todd Steinman, CEO at M80, a GroupM social-media marketing provider that is owned by the WPP Group (NASDAQ:WPPGY)</p>
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<p>Ripple Effect</p>
<p>Facebook has a slew of advertising characteristics that support the enormous potential its valuation implies. The social network’s pool of 900 million users is unrivaled and comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) estimates that one in seven overall minutes spent online are spent on Facebook.</p>
<p>This massive scale along with coveted attention combines to create a word-of-mouth effect that can make advertisers drool.</p>
<p>In this valued phenomenon, marketers are able to influence customers’ decision-making by highlighting friends’ approval of goods and services. For example, consumers are much more likely to splurge on a Sony (NYSE:SNE) TV if a friend has already endorsed it through a paid ad on Facebook.</p>
<p>“We know where word of mouth sits in the decision-making process. It’s at the top,” said Steinman.</p>
<p>Facebook also tends to have an ability to amplify the effectiveness of advertising in traditional media like TV and print. For example, a video of a hilarious DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV) commercial that is “liked” by friends on Facebook can fuel conversation that eventually leads to a rise in subscriptions.</p>
<p>“The ripple effect that is caused by these other activities that can make its way to social media is something we’re having success measuring and linking P&amp;L to,” said Nichols. He called this process an “assist rate,” explaining, “It’s not always the one getting the point, but it’s the one influencing getting that point.”</p>
<p>It makes sense that fans of Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) visit the coffee giant’s website 418% more than the average Internet user, according to comScore.</p>
<p>But the research firm also said in a 2011 report that friends of these fans visit the site 230% more than the baseline and – more importantly to shareholders – fans and friends of fans spend 8% more per buy and generate 11% more transactions than the average Internet user.</p>
<p>Advertising Obstacles Loom</p>
<p>Thanks in part to these promising characteristics, Facebook is the largest publisher of online display ad impressions, publishing 28% of these ads as of the third quarter of 2011, according to comScore.</p>
<p>However, all of this hasn’t yet translated to a corresponding share of ad budgets. In October 2011, social networking websites received just 14.8% of overall estimated display ad spending, comScore said.</p>
<p>“There is a lot of headroom for share shift towards social media platforms but what’s going to have to come first is a more transparent and believable form of measurement that will convince marketers to accelerate that share shift,” said Nichols.</p>
<p>While 84% of North American execs in a new eMarketer study believe social-media campaigns increased marketing effectiveness and sales efforts, over 50% believe the lack of a standardized metric that can measure a return on investment remains a major obstacle.</p>
<p>“The onus is on Facebook to provide the answers and educate the media buying unit around what the value is,” said Steinman.</p>
<p>Facebook reported a 37% year-over-year leap in ad revenue to $872 million in the first quarter, but a 7.5% decline sequentially due to “seasonal trends” and shifting user growth.</p>
<p>Some of the skepticism stems from the fact that social media is far less transactional in nature than Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), which generated $8.31 billion in ad sales last quarter.</p>
<p>Emphasis on Users Rattles Advertisers</p>
<p>At the same time, Facebook has been understandably reluctant to do anything on the ad side that could disrupt user experience and lead to a decline in users or engagement.</p>
<p>“Facebook is turning the dial slowly to see what the pain threshold is for their users,” said Steinman. “They’re extremely afraid to shake up the user experience in exchange for ad revenue.”</p>
<p>Facebook has repeatedly turned down requests from advertisers that could rile users. For example, it usually doesn’t allow ads to be tagged with “cookies” that track users’ activities following an ad click.</p>
<p>“A lot of other platforms are much more willing to break the user experience and be more flexible,” said Ben Bloom, digital strategist at Wunderman, the largest digital network in the world and also a member of the WPP Group. “From a creative perspective, I think there is a very big disconnect. That can be shocking and disruptive for an advertiser used to having a little more influence and used to being listened to.”</p>
<p>To be sure, this focus on protecting the user experience only makes sense. After all, advertisers would have little reason to buy ads on Facebook if the social network suffered an exodus in users.</p>
<p>Hunger for Better Data</p>
<p>All of this helps explain why Facebook can provide specific data on fan growth and engagement, but often not on how many users actually pull the trigger and make a purchase.</p>
<p>Some advertisers “are becoming more skeptical as they are not able to connect the dots to purchase to give them the confidence that’s where they want to continue to spend their money,” said Steinman.</p>
<p>A Kia Motors executive summed it up to The Wall Street Journal this way: “The question with Facebook and many of the social media sites is, 'What are we getting for our dollars?'"</p>
<p>Of course, it’s important to remember Facebook is just beginning to zero in on advertising after years of neglect to focus on users and technology.</p>
<p>As this advertising model evolves and more accurate metrics become available, the dots will finally be connected for ad buyers, Steinman said, predicting this could happen in the next 12 months.</p>
<p>In the mean time, analytics firms are striving to guide marketers in their quest to find better metrics on the impact of social media spending.</p>
<p>Last month MarketShare unveiled a new platform in tandem with Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) that strives to help marketers optimize their resources.</p>
<p>“The good news for social media companies is we’re seeing more clients than not mis-measuring and underestimating the effects of social media on their business,” said Nichols of MarketShare.</p> | As Facebook IPO Looms, Advertising Hurdles Remain | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/05/03/as-facebook-ipo-looms-advertising-hurdles-remain.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Well, that did not go quite as expected. <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/25/3-things-to-watch-when-national-oilwell-varco-inc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Heading into the third quarter Opens a New Window.</a>, National Oilwell Varco's (NYSE: NOV) CFO said that the company expected revenue to bounce 10% off the bottom due to "large projects booked earlier in the year and see continued improvement in our production-related businesses." Instead, the company delivered another sequential decline in revenue. While the company did have several positives in the quarter, it was certainly a "glass half full/glass half empty" quarter depending on one's perspective.</p>
<p>For the third quarter, National Oilwell Varco reported revenue of $1.65 billion, which is down 5% from last quarter and 50% below the year-ago quarter:</p>
<p>Data source: National Oilwell Varco. Chart by author. (Note: In millions of dollars.)</p>
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<p>Two of the company's four segments drove that decline. Revenue in the rig systems segment slumped 17% sequentially and 69% year over year to $470 million. Worse yet, the segment only recorded $185 million of new orders, which barely replaced half of the $363 million of orders it shipped out of its backlog, pushing it down to $2.76 billion. Revenue in the rig aftermarket segment also declined, down 12% from the second quarter and 44% from the year-ago quarter.</p>
<p>On a more positive note, the wellbore technologies segment reported a 3% increase in revenue from last quarter, though revenue is down 37% from the third quarter of last year. Finally, completion and production solutions revenue edged up 1% sequentially, though, like the other segments, revenue was down sharply from last year, slumping 32%. In addition, new orders were only $184 million, which again only replaced about half of therevenue coming out of the backlog, pushing it down to $812 million.</p>
<p>Turning to profitability, or lack thereof, National Oilwell Varco reported a net loss of $1.36 billion, or $3.62 per share. However, $1.09 billion of that loss was the result of goodwill impairments, severance charges, facility closures, and the write-off of other items. After adjusting for those items, the net loss narrows to $128 million, or $0.34 per share. However, like revenue, that is a further decline from last quarter when the company turned in an adjusted loss of $114 million, or $0.30 per share. The operating loss did narrow, though, from $270 million to $108 million while adjusted EBITDA rose from $25 million to $68 million for those looking for some positives.</p>
<p>CEO Clayton Williams had this to say about the quarter:</p>
<p>Clearly, he is a glass-half-full type.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Next, Williams turned to the outlook for what lies ahead, saying:</p>
<p>Williams notes that that North American energy markets, driven by shale plays, are starting to recover. That is no surprise given what shale producers have been saying and doing. For example, leading shale drillerDevon Energy (NYSE: DVN) is one of a handful of companies that has increased its capex budget to accelerate drilling in the second half of this year. In Devon Energy's case, it added $200 million to its budget boosting it to between $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion. Also, as a result of recently completed asset sales, Devon has another $1 billion in cash earmarked to accelerate its activity.</p>
<p>That said, the offshore markets are a different story as they continue to weaken. An evidence of this is the ongoing contract losses and rig retirements at leading offshore drilling contractor Transocean (NYSE: RIG). Thus far, Transocean has retired 28 rigs and could retire between six and 12 more over the next few years, which will dampen demand for rig equipment from National Oilwell Varco.</p>
<p>Despite this dichotomy in the oil market, National Oilwell Varco continues to invest for the eventual recovery in all its markets. That led it to make another bolt-on acquisition during the quarter, acquiring Fjord Processing in a roughly $150 million deal. Furthermore, with $1.51 billion in cash and $4.5 billion in available credit, it has plenty of capacity to make additional acquisitions.</p>
<p>National Oilwell Varco's third-quarter results were another step in the wrong direction. That said, the company is starting to get much more optimistic about the near-term outlook for its shale-focused businesses. While the recovery in its international and offshore segments appears farther away, given what the industry has gone through over the past two years, any optimism is a welcome sign.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2692&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of National Oilwell Varco. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends National Oilwell Varco. The Motley Fool owns shares of Devon Energy. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | National Oilwell Varco, Inc. Still Hasn't Hit Bottom Just Yet | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/27/national-oilwell-varco-inc-still-hasnt-hit-bottom-just-yet.html | 2016-10-27 | 0 |
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<p>The head of the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday vowed the global lender will stand by troubled Greece and said uncertainty over the future of the euro zone was clouding the outlook for the embattled Spanish economy.</p>
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<p>IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said a broad decline in confidence was being fueled by weak economic data coming out of many countries and investors reacting to that.</p>
<p>Uncertainty over the euro zone debt crisis and the potential for a so-called "fiscal cliff" in the United States, which she said raised "serious questions" about the U.S. economy, were predominantly weighing on confidence, Lagarde said.</p>
<p>Speaking ahead of a critical meeting of the European Central Bank on Thursday, Lagarde signaled that the IMF believes the central bank should cut rates given low inflation levels.</p>
<p>If European leaders followed through on commitments made at a June summit to tackle the debt crisis "there are reasons to hope the situation will improve," she added.</p>
<p>But the United States kept up pressure on Wednesday for Europe to act, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner calling on euro zone leaders to take steps to bring down interest rates in countries that are reforming.</p>
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<p>President Barack Obama, in a telephone call with French President Francois Hollande, pushed for decisive efforts.</p>
<p>Concerns over Greece and Spain were also weighing on market confidence, Lagarde said.</p>
<p>The IMF is currently in Athens as part of a "troika" of international lenders, including the European Commission and European Central Bank, looking at ways to keep Greece afloat.</p>
<p>But with the IMF-EU program in Greece way off track and European officials already saying that the country will need further debt restructuring, questions are arising over whether IMF member countries will seek to change course on Greece.</p>
<p>"The IMF never leaves the negotiation table," Lagarde insisted during the roundtable interview with reporters at the IMF headquarters. "We are in Greece at the moment ... and we are engaged in dialogue with the Greek authorities."</p>
<p>Lagarde acknowledged, however, that Greece could do more by collecting more taxes from wealthy Greeks to boost government revenues and economic reforms to strengthen the economy.</p>
<p>"I certainly hope with a better consolidated coalition and real ownership (of the program) by the authorities, that Greece can actually go further and improve the situation," she said of the new conservative led coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.</p>
<p>The IMF has recently come under attack from private economists and analysts over its handling of the euro zone crisis, which some say is toeing the official European-German line. Its critics also question whether the IMF can remain truly independent and give candid advice while working as part of the "troika" of lenders in countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.</p>
<p>"I find it surprising when I see the hostile response," Lagarde said, vowing "to do everything I can" to protect the IMF's credibility as it deals with Europe.</p>
<p>Lagarde said last year she called for the recapitalization of European banks, which was controversial at the time in Europe, made early calls for a fiscal and banking union in the euro zone despite pushback by some Europeans, and pressed for a stronger financial firewall in Europe.</p>
<p>She said the Fund would be honest but also demanding of governments by providing sound economic assessments.</p>
<p>Lagarde again praised Spanish efforts to cut its budget deficit and overhaul its economy to boost growth. Those efforts were however being undermined by investor uncertainty over the future of the euro zone, she said.</p>
<p>Spain's struggling economy, which continues in recession, has been taking a beating from investors despite ambitious fiscal and structural reforms and a 100-billion-euro bailout for its banks hit by the bursting of a property bubble.</p>
<p>Lagarde said an IMF supervised program in Spain would not demand much more than the government is already doing.</p>
<p>"What Spain has already done and is committing to do is not much more than we would be asking from Spain if it was in a program with the IMF," Lagarde said, calling Spain's fiscal consolidation a "huge effort".</p>
<p>She said, however, that more could be done to address weaknesses in the Spanish banking sector.</p>
<p>While there are lingering concerns among investors over continued weak growth in Spain, Lagarde said improving exports showed that the economy was starting to mend.</p>
<p>"There are factors at work to improve the Spanish economy but there are also external elements that cloud the horizon of Spain and that is the uncertainty in the euro zone in general," she added.</p>
<p>But Lagarde emphasized that the euro area was not the only risk facing the world economy.</p>
<p>Removing uncertainty in the United States over the path of fiscal policy would also help calm investor nerves, she said.</p>
<p>The U.S. economy is facing $4 trillion worth of expiring tax cuts and automatic government spending reductions, and most analysts do not expect Congress to act until after the congressional and presidential elections in November.</p>
<p>Lagarde welcomed steps by Congress on Tuesday to avoid a government shutdown by agreeing to extend funding for federal government agencies and discretionary program through March 2013.</p>
<p>"But there are serious questions regarding the U.S. economic future particularly as a result of the potential fiscal cliff should Congress not agree on at least a temporary plan in the coming months," she added.</p> | IMF Head: We Stand by Greece | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/08/01/imf-head-stand-by-greece.html | 2016-03-03 | 0 |
<p>The right wing media's promotion of a&#160;widely-debunked&#160;Alex Jones&#160;conspiracy theory about the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) ammunition acquisitions prompted House Republicans to hold a hearing to investigate.&#160;The theory, which&#160;assigns some sinister motivation behind the recent ammo purchases,&#160;first gained traction on the websites of conspiracy theorist&#160;Alex Jones before finding its way to Fox News and Fox Business and finally to the halls of Congress.&#160;</p>
<p>On April 25, Republican Reps. Jim Jordan (OH) and Jason Chaffetz (UT)&#160; <a href="/static/images/item/hearing-ammo-20130425.JPG" type="external">held a joint hearing</a>&#160;"to examine the procurement of ammunition by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General." The hearing followed right wing&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/social-security-bullet-purchase_n_1854121.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&amp;ir=Politics" type="external">media reports</a>&#160;speculating about the reasons for&#160;the acquisitions.</p>
<p>The conspiracy theory picked up steam in March 2012&#160;after a series of&#160; <a href="http://www.infowars.com/why-does-the-department-of-homeland-security-need-450-million-hollow-point-bullets/" type="external">reports</a>&#160;were posted to Alex Jones' InfoWars.com, including one that&#160; <a href="http://www.infowars.com/social-security-administration-to-purchase-174-thousand-rounds-of-hollow-point-bullets/" type="external">claimed</a>&#160;"it's not outlandish" to conclude that the government, "is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest."&#160;An&#160; <a href="/blog/2012/08/28/daily-caller-op-ed-suggests-obama-administratio/189611" type="external">opinion piece</a>&#160;at The Daily Caller cited the reports to suggest that the Obama administration is planning to kill thousands of American citizens.&#160; The DHS&#160;purchases were brought up on Fox News,&#160; <a href="/embed/static/clips/2013/03/26/29420/fnc-ff-20130326-ammo1" type="external">prompting</a>&#160;Fox and Friends co-host&#160;Brian Kilmeade to ask,&#160;"why they need all those bullets." And while covering the story, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs&#160; <a href="/embed/static/clips/2013/03/04/29132/fbn-ldt-20130304-tanksandbullets" type="external">wondered</a>&#160;why the government was "arming up" while trying to "disarm American citizens."&#160;</p>
<p>Forbes&#160;contributor Ralph Benko&#160; <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2013/03/11/1-6-billion-rounds-of-ammo-for-homeland-security-its-time-for-a-national-conversation/" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;that "It's Time For A National Conversation," and called for Congressional action:</p>
<p>If Obama doesn't show any leadership on this matter it's an opportunity for Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, to summon Secretary Napolitano over for a little national conversation. Madame Secretary?&#160; Buying 1.6 billion rounds of ammo and deploying armored personnel carriers runs contrary, in every way, to what "homeland security" really means.</p>
<p>Reps. Jordan and Chaffetz&#160; <a href="http://oversight.house.gov/hearing/oversight-of-the-federal-governments-procurement-of-ammunition/" type="external">answered</a>&#160;that call.</p>
<p>As&#160;Media Matters&#160;has&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/03/04/foxs-dobbs-pushes-conspiracy-that-government-is/192905" type="external">previously noted</a>, the claim that DHS is stockpiling ammunition for some ominous purpose is simply wrong. In reality, the Associated Press reported that while DHS did buy 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, the government bought the bullets in bulk to save money on ammunition used in training and in the field. As the AP noted, "More than 90 federal agencies and 70,000 agents and officers used the department's training center last year." On a separate occasion,&#160;Media Matters&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/03/26/fox-already-has-the-answers-to-its-ammo-conspir/193258" type="external">reported</a>&#160;that DHS responded that ammunition purchases are lower than in previous years and that while the law allows DHS to set purchase contracts of billions of rounds in order to reduce prices and save money, the government hasn't actually purchased nearly that many rounds.</p>
<p><a href="/blog/2013/04/23/matt-drudge-promises-year-of-alex-jones/193748" type="external">Alex Jones</a>, who has called President Obama the "global head of Al Qaeda," and claimed that the terrorist attacks in Boston, New York City, and Oklahoma City were carried out or sponsored by the government,&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/04/16/alex-jones-and-his-enablers/193647" type="external">has gained influence</a>&#160;with the right wing media. Recently, Drudge Report's Matt Drudge&#160; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSOkoY9wkb4" type="external">promised</a>&#160;that 2013 would be "year of Alex Jones."</p>
<p />
<p>UPDATE: The hearing on Alex Jones' conspiracy theory&#160; <a href="http://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-lucas-introduce-bill-limiting-federal-agencies-from-stockpiling-ammunition" type="external">inspired</a>&#160;new legislation that's now before&#160;Congress. On April 26, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) introduced bills in both chambers of&#160;Congress in order to limit federal agencies from stockpiling ammunition. From Inhofe's statement (emphasis added):</p>
<p />
<p>"President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans' access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights," said Inhofe. "One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what's available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition.&#160;As the public learned in a House committee hearing this week, the Department of Homeland Security has two years worth of ammo on hand and allots nearly 1,000 more rounds of ammunition for DHS officers than is used on average by our Army officers. The AMMO Act of 2013 will enforce transparency and accountability of federal agencies' ammunition supply while also protecting law-abiding citizens access to these resources."</p> | Alex Jones Has His Day In Congress: House Republicans Hold Conspiracy Theory Hearing | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/25/alex-jones-has-his-day-in-congress-house-republ/193777 | 2013-04-25 | 4 |
<p>Just when you are ready to give up on California, there is a sign that some sanity still remains in Sacramento!</p>
<p>In April, a 2-member California <a href="" type="internal">parole board authorized the release</a> of former Manson Family killer Leslie Van Houten. The decision to go forward with this recommendation rested with Governor Jerry Brown, who was <a href="" type="internal">sent a petition signed by over 140,000 people</a> to discourage his signature on the release when it arrived on his desk.</p>
<p>This time, Brown <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-van-houten-parole-20160722-snap-story.html" type="external">made the good choice</a>.</p>
<p>Gov. Jerry Brown denied parole Friday to Leslie Van Houten, who was convicted along with other members of Charles Manson’s cult in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.</p>
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<p>Brown said Van Houten, the youngest member of Manson’s “family,” posed “an unreasonable danger to society if released from prison.”</p>
<p>… He said the “shocking nature of the crimes left an indelible mark on society” and that the motive — to trigger a race war “by slaughtering innocent people chosen at random — is equally disturbing.”</p>
<p>“Even two years after the murders, when interviewed by a psychologist, Van Houten admitted that, although she had no present desire to kill anyone, she would have no difficult doing it again,” Brown said in his statement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3704321/California-governor-denies-parole-Manson-follower.html" type="external">The Tate family</a> is relieved by Brown’s decision.</p>
<p>“These people need to remain in jail until their passing day, for justice to be served,” said Debra Tate, Sharon Tate’s sister who delivered the signatures to Brown’s office last month and has organized opposition to the release of Manson family members.</p>
<p>Manson, 81, and other followers involved in the killings are still jailed. Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles “Tex” Watson have each been denied parole multiple times, while fellow defendant Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.</p>
<p>Family member Bruce Davis also was recommended for parole, but it was blocked by the governor in January.</p>
<p>As a signer of the Tate family’s petition, this Californian would like to thank Governor Brown for making a just decision in the Van Houten case.</p> | Gov. Jerry Brown denies parole for Manson family killer | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/07/gov-jerry-brown-denies-parole-for-manson-family-killer/ | 2016-07-23 | 0 |
<p>After the ridiculous ethics allegations that the Left leveled against <a href="http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTBhNTMxMTBjYzljOTUwZDY3OTJlZmVkODY4NzVlYmM=" type="external">John Roberts</a> and <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZhZmVkMWM3OWFkNDRhYzBlMTE5ZTM4Yzc2ZWNhNzQ=" type="external">Sam Alito</a>, you might think that sensible observers would be suitably skeptical of Salon’s <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/05/01/boyle/" type="external">recent allegations</a> against Fourth Circuit nominee Terrence Boyle. Indeed, Boyle’s supporters have already <a href="http://howappealing.law.com/BoyleNominationFacts2.pdf" type="external">offered a robust response</a> to those allegations. Because the full facts are not yet publicly available, I will not parse the charges and rebuttals here. But some broader perspective might place this matter in useful context.</p>
<p>Consider these three hypotheticals:</p>
<p>(A) Judge A is a state supreme-court justice who faces a hotly contested retention election. Pending before his court is a case in which an organization has submitted an amicus brief. While the case is pending and in the midst of the battle over Judge A’s retention election, that organization creates an annual award named after Judge A to be given to a person who, in the view of that organization, has made outstanding contributions to the law. Judge A presents the first annual Judge A award at the organization’s annual convention. Several months later, in dissent, Judge A adopts the position that the organization advocated in its amicus brief.</p>
<p>(B) Judge B is a federal district judge in a personal-injury action against cigarette manufacturers. A court of appeals takes what it calls the “extraordinary” action of removing him from a case because it concludes that a ruling of his amounts to a “judicial usurpation of power,” is contrary to our “common law tradition,” ignores “fundamental concepts of due process,” eviscerates the defendants’ right of appeal, and destroys any appearance of impartiality. Unchastened by this correction, Judge B personally accepts from an anti-smoking group an award for his ruling: the “C. Everett Koop Award for significant achievement toward creating a smokefree society.”</p>
<p>(C) To a lesser extent than <a href="http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjI1NTg1MzBiNzgwYTdkYTY3MDU0YTQxZTNhYTllN2Y=" type="external">Justice Ginsburg did</a> while sitting on the Supreme Court, Judge C, as a federal district judge, takes part in a small number of cases that involve parties in which he has a very minor stock holding. It is clear to all fair-minded observers that his participation was inadvertent, that the cases could not possibly have affected the value of his minor stock holdings, and that his decisions in those cases were rendered impartially.</p>
<p>Which of the hypotheticals raises a serious ethics issue that might call into question a judicial candidate’s fitness for the federal court of appeals? (You may select more than one.)</p>
<p>The correct answer, I would submit, is A and B.</p>
<p>A, as it turns out, is straight from the record of Rosemary Barkett, the former justice of the Florida supreme court who was appointed to the Eleventh Circuit by President Clinton in 1994. (A group of trial lawyers calling itself the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers submitted an amicus brief in the case of University of Miami v. Echarte and created the Rosemary Barkett Award while that case was pending and during Barkett’s controversial 1992 retention election.) Even apart from this ethical lapse, Barkett had a <a href="http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDdiOGRhNTFiMmZkMmY0NTRhMWE2NGMyMzEyYWFmZmY=" type="external">record</a> as a Florida justice that read like a parody of liberal judicial activism. But Senate Democrats (then in the majority) overwhelmingly approved her nomination.</p>
<p>B is <a href="http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjgzY2Q5ZTE5ZDczMDAxMmZjZDc2MWViMmNkNGFiMjY=" type="external">Lee Sarokin</a>, whom Clinton appointed to the Third Circuit in 1994. In addition to his highly dubious ethical judgment, Sarokin had earned a reputation as a stridently liberal judicial activist. Indeed, he described himself as a “flaming liberal” as a judge. The New Jersey Law Journal had reported that Sarokin “may be the most reversed federal judge in New Jersey when it comes to major cases.” And a broad range of police and victim’s groups announced their opposition to his nomination. But Senate Democrats overwhelmingly approved his nomination.</p>
<p>C, I’m willing to bet, will turn out to be Judge Boyle, once the ethics allegations against him have been carefully examined. If so, any minor technical violations should be regarded, as Ginsburg’s similar incidents were, as innocent mistakes that have no bearing on his fitness to serve on the Fourth Circuit.</p>
<p>Democrats have displayed no real interest in judicial ethics but instead seek to use ethics charges as a partisan club against President Bush’s judicial nominees. Yet as soon as Salon’s allegations surfaced, a number of Senate Republicans, showing a disturbing penchant for abject surrender, seemed all too ready to abandon Judge Boyle’s nomination. In the absence of any genuinely serious ethics issues, any Republicans who run from the Boyle fight will demonstrate their own lack of fitness for office.</p>
<p>—Edward Whelan is president of the <a href="" type="internal">Ethics and Public Policy Center</a> and is a regular contributor to NRO’s <a href="http://bench.nationalreview.com/" type="external">“Bench Memos” blog</a> on judicial nominations.</p> | Partisan Ethics | false | https://eppc.org/publications/partisan-ethics/ | 1 |
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<p>Asian shares were mostly higher Friday, taking their cue from optimism on Wall Street set off by a report showing spending by U.S. consumers growing in July, along with wages and salaries.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.2 percent to 19,684.81 in early trading, while Australia's S&amp;P/ASX 200 added nearly 0.2 percent to 5,723.40. But South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2 percent at 2,359.02. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.3 percent to 28,040.59. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.4 percent to 3,375.17. Southeast Asian markets were closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>UPBEAT U.S.: The U.S. Commerce Department said consumer spending grew at its fastest pace in three months. Companies that sell everything from cosmetics to toys to shoes advanced as investors bet Americans would shop more. Biotech drug companies, drug distributors, and scientific equipment companies made some of the biggest gains in health care. Technology companies advanced for the fourth day in a row and closed at record highs.</p>
<p>WALL STREET: The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index climbed 14.06 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,471.65, its highest close in three weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average added 55.67 points, or 0.3 percent, to 21,948.10. The Nasdaq composite gained 60.35 points, or 1 percent, to 6,428.66, above the record high it set in late July.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude slipped 26 cents to $46.97 a barrel. It jumped $1.27 to $47.23 a barrel in New York Thursday, recouping recent losses over Tropical Storm Harvey as the rains hitting the Gulf Coast began to abate. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 12 cents to $52.74 a barrel in London.</p>
<p>CURRENCIES: The dollar dipped to 110.04 yen from Thursday's 110.53 yen. The euro rose to $1.1907 from $1.1876.</p>
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<p>AP Markets Writer Marley Jay contributed to this report.</p>
<p>He can be reached at http://twitter.com/MarleyJayAP</p>
<p>His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/marley%20jay</p>
<p>AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama can be reached at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama</p>
<p>Her work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/yuri%20kageyama</p> | Asian stocks mostly higher after rise on Wall Street | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/31/us-stocks-jump-after-report-stronger-consumer-spending.html | 2017-09-01 | 0 |
<p>LOS ANGELES — Few were more aware than <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Corey-Seager/" type="external">Corey Seager</a> that the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Los-Angeles-Dodgers/" type="external">Los Angeles Dodgers</a> had been stranding an unusually high number of runners in scoring position lately.</p>
<p>So he did something about it Saturday night.</p>
<p>Seager yanked a two-out, three-run double to right field in the sixth inning to give Los Angeles the lead for good in a 6-3 victory against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/San-Diego-Padres/" type="external">San Diego Padres</a> at Dodger Stadium.</p>
<p>“We left a lot of guys (Friday) night and to finally get some across, it was nice,” Seager said.</p>
<p>The Dodgers were 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position in a 4-3 loss to the Padres on Friday, their first defeat in 37 home games after leading at any point of the game.</p>
<p>They were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and trailing 3-1 on Saturday when Seager lined a 3-2 pitch over the head of first baseman <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wil-Myers/" type="external">Wil Myers</a>.</p>
<p>Yasmani Grandal and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chase_Utley/" type="external">Chase Utley</a> scored easily. Yasiel Puig was held up at third, and Seager was caught between first and second. Seager scrambled back toward first and San Diego shortstop Yangervis Solarte threw low to Myers. Puig then broke for home, forcing Myers to rush his throw to catcher Austin Hedges, who had to lunge to the first-base side of the plate to make the catch. That gave Puig just enough room to score on a headfirst slide for a 4-3 lead.</p>
<p>“I think the reads were right all the way around on that particular play, Solarte just kind of threw the ball down and away to Wil and Wil had a hard time redirecting that ball back to the plate,” said San Diego manager <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Andy_Green/" type="external">Andy Green</a>. “If it’s a throw to (Hedges’) chest, he’s out by 5 or 10 feet.”</p>
<p>Seager said a key at-bat in the sixth inning also belonged to Puig, who drew a nine-pitch walk off right-handed reliever Craig Stammen to load the bases with nobody out.</p>
<p>“That was a really mature at-bat for him,” Seager said. “He didn’t give up, he didn’t give in.”</p>
<p>Los Angeles rookie first baseman <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cody-Bellinger/" type="external">Cody Bellinger</a> stretched the lead to 5-3 in the seventh inning with his 34th home run of the season. Bellinger, who went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in the 4-3 loss to the Padres on Friday night, finished 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored Saturday.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chris_Taylor/" type="external">Chris Taylor</a> made it 6-3 with a solo homer with two outs in the eighth inning.</p>
<p>Dodgers relievers Tony <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Watson/" type="external">Watson</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brandon_Morrow/" type="external">Brandon Morrow</a>, Pedro Baez and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kenley-Jansen/" type="external">Kenley Jansen</a> each threw a shutout inning to help even the series heading into Sunday’s finale.</p>
<p>Watson (6-4) picked up his first victory since he was traded to Los Angeles on July 31, and Jansen notched his 31st save in 32 opportunities this season.</p>
<p>The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Justin_Turner/" type="external">Justin Turner</a> off Padres starter Jhoulys Chacin but then stranded seven runners, including five in scoring position, before Chacin departed after five innings. He allowed one run and four hits with three strikeouts and four walks.</p>
<p>Taylor opened the first with a walk and Seager grounded a single through the right side, sending Taylor to third. Turner hit a shallow fly ball that drifted into foul territory. Hunter Renfroe made the catch up against the stands but wasn’t in good position to make a strong throw home.</p>
<p>“You can’t walk guys and expect to beat them because they’re going to run into some baseballs,” Green said. “Their lineup keeps coming at you.”</p>
<p>Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu recorded his fourth strikeout when he got Carlos Asuaje swinging for the second out of the third inning, but Jose Pirela and Renfroe followed with doubles into nearly the same spot in the left field corner to tie the score at 1.</p>
<p>Ryu got in trouble again in the fourth after giving up a leadoff walk to Solarte followed by an opposite-field single to Cory Spangenberg. Both runners moved up on a groundout by Hedges, and Chacin helped himself with a two-strike single to right, driving in Solarte for a 2-1 lead.</p>
<p>The Padres scored a run for the third consecutive inning off Ryu when Myers homered to right field on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the fifth, his third consecutive homer to the opposite field.</p>
<p>Ryu, who had combined for 14 shutout innings in his previous two starts, was finished after throwing 108 pitches in five innings, allowing three runs and seven hits, striking out five and walking two.</p>
<p>San Diego benefited from some strong defensive plays early in the game. Renfroe cut off a single in the gap by Bellinger to keep Taylor from scoring after he broke from first on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the third.</p>
<p>Manuel Margot leaped against the center field fence to catch a long fly ball from Utley with one out in the fourth, and Solarte ended the inning with a nice backhand in the hole and strong throw to retire Puig.</p>
<p>NOTES: Padres RHP Jhoulys Chacin came in with the best ERA in the major leagues at home (1.86) and the worst in the majors on the road (7.36). … Dodgers RHP Chris Hatcher is expected to be activated Sunday after missing the past seven weeks with thoracic inflammation. … Dodgers LHP <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Clayton_Kershaw/" type="external">Clayton Kershaw</a> is scheduled to throw a bullpen session Sunday, his second in three days since going on the 10-day DL on July 24 with a back ailment.</p> | Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger propel Los Angeles Dodgers past San Diego Padres | false | https://newsline.com/corey-seager-cody-bellinger-propel-los-angeles-dodgers-past-san-diego-padres/ | 2017-08-13 | 1 |
<p>Nothing is more brazenly sanctimonious than a notorious reprobate like Donald Trump telling other people how to live. This is someone who has had five kids by three different women, all of whom he cheated on while married to them. It’s someone who has defrauded businesses and customers. It’s someone who lies as easily as he breathes. It’s someone who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by at least a dozen women. It’s someone who attacks anyone who is even mildly critical of him with insults and heinous accusations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2116806485000802" type="external" /></p>
<p>Donald Trump is the model of a failed human being who cares only for himself. Cross him and he will devolve into an infantile, whiny bully who lashes out with false condemnations and deliberate defamation. So it is especially notable when he engages in outbursts that are not only offensive, but make no sense at all. On Friday he demonstrated that incoherence with another one of his mindless tweets:</p>
<p />
<p>Really? Can Trump actually be that unaware of his own psychoses? Doesn’t he realize that, if anyone destroyed Michael Flynn’s life it was Michael Flynn? Trump’s former National Security Advisor is the one who chose to cavort with Russian operatives during Trump’s campaign, including the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. It was Flynn who took money from Russian media outlets. It was Flynn who dined with Vladimir Putin. And it was Flynn who lied about all of these things on his security clearance forms and to the FBI.</p>
<p>The only person more responsible for the destruction of Flynn’s life is Trump himself. After all, it was Trump who fired Flynn after only three weeks on the job. And we just learned in the release of memos by James Comey that Trump was telling near total strangers that he questioned Flynn’s judgement. It’s the height of duplicity and disloyalty for Trump to now complain about the damage done to Flynn’s deservedly tattered reputation.</p>
<p>In the course of this dishonest characterization of Flynn’s travails, Trump also smears Comey as “Shady” without anything to back up that insult. The aforementioned memos actually support Comey’s consistent veracity. It is Trump who has been exposed as deceitful and determined to obstruct justice and avoid accountability for his flagrant misconduct.</p>
<p>Finally, Trump apparently thinks there’s something wrong with the First Amendment. He not only attacks Comey’s hugely successful book ( <a href="https://amzn.to/2HzK5Uy" type="external">A Higher Loyalty</a>), but also his right to publish it. The only reason the book should not have been written, in Trump’s view, is because it wasn’t a fawning tome of unreserved adoration.</p>
<p>So when Trump asks if this is “really the way life in America is supposed to work,” the only reasonable answer is “Yes.” That’s exactly the way it’s supposed to work. People get to have their say. If Trump doesn’t like it he can write his own book. And so can Flynn. And the American people can decide for themselves who they trust. Although, there is plenty of evidence already that <a href="" type="internal">it isn’t Trump</a>. #SAD!</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p> | The Way Life in America is Supposed to Work: By Russian Colluder, Sexual Assaulter Donald Trump | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D3764 | 4 |
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<p>For two months now, as accusations of sexual misconduct have piled up against Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced mogul has responded over and over again: “Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied.”</p>
<p>Consent is a concept central to law on sexual assault, and will likely be an issue in potential legal cases against Weinstein, who is under investigation by police in four cities, and others accused in the current so-called “reckoning.”</p>
<p>But the definition of consent — namely, how it is expressed — is a matter of intense debate: Is it a definite “yes,” or the mere absence of “no”? Can it be revoked? Do power dynamics come into play? Legally, the definition varies widely across the nation.</p>
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<p>“Half the states don’t even have a definition of consent,” says Erin Murphy, a professor at New York University School of Law who’s involved in a project to rewrite a model penal code on sex assault. “One person’s idea of consent is that no one is screaming or crying. Another person’s idea of consent is someone saying, ‘Yes, I want to do this.’ And in between, of course, is an enormous spectrum of behavior, both verbal and nonverbal, that people engage in to communicate desire or lack of desire.”</p>
<p>“It’s pretty telling,” Murphy adds, “that the critical thing most people look to understand the nature of a sexual encounter — this idea of consent — is one that we don’t even have a consensus definition of in our society.”</p>
<p>Many victim advocates argue that a power imbalance plays a role. In nearly every instance, the allegations in recent weeks came from accusers who were in far less powerful positions than those they accused — as in, for example, the rape allegations that have surfaced against music mogul Russell Simmons, which he denies.</p>
<p>“You have to look at the power dynamics, the coercion, the manipulation,” says Jeanie Kurka Reimer, a longtime advocate in the area of sexual assault. “The threatening and grooming that perpetrators use to create confusion and compliance and fear in the minds of the victims. Just going along with something does not mean consent.”</p>
<p>Many Weinstein accusers have spoken about that uneven dynamic. For years Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and most of his alleged victims were women in their 20s, looking for their first big break. A number have indicated that his power — and fear of his retribution, both professional and physical — blunted their ability to resist his advances. Actress Paz de la Huerta, who has accused Weinstein of rape, said in a TV interview: “I just froze in fear. I guess that would be considered rape, because I didn’t want to do it.”</p>
<p>One woman who did manage to escape Weinstein’s advances in a 2014 hotel-room encounter addressed the power imbalance in a recent essay. The very word “consent,” actress and writer Brit Marling wrote in the Atlantic, “cannot fully capture the complexity of the encounter. Because consent is a function of power. You have to have a modicum of power to give it.”</p>
<p>The anti-sexual violence organization RAINN tracks the various state definitions of consent. The differences make for a situation that is “confusing as hell,” says Rebecca O’Connor, the group’s vice president of public policy.</p>
<p>For many years, O’Connor points out, “we had this he said-she said mentality, where you went into court and if you couldn’t prove that you didn’t consent, the activity was deemed consensual.” Also, most states required that the accuser show force was used, to show lack of consent.</p>
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<p>“Of course, our thinking and understanding of these cases has evolved tremendously, and so states have acted in response to that,” she says. “What we’re finding is especially at moments like this — when it’s impossible to ignore the conversation — they are … re-evaluating the factors that play into the definition of consent and how it can be expressed.”</p>
<p>For example, O’Connor says, North Carolina is looking at its law that doesn’t allow consent to be revoked once it’s been given — which means that if an encounter turns violent, as in a recent reported case, the accused cannot be charged with rape because the woman consented at the beginning.</p>
<p>And several states have passed laws requiring affirmative consent — going further than the usual “no means no” standard to require an actual “yes,” though not necessarily verbal. Among those states: Wisconsin, California and Florida. In Florida, consent is defined as “intelligent, knowing, and voluntary consent and does not include coerced submission.”</p>
<p>“We’re not there yet,” O’Connor says, “but a lot of states are starting to move the wheels on this.”</p>
<p>The varying definitions of consent can lead to confusion among the people who most need to understand them.</p>
<p>Reimer, the victims’ advocate, recalls a Wisconsin case in which a woman had experienced a violent sexual experience with a boyfriend she was trying to break up with. She had consented to sex at other times in their relationship, but was no longer interested. This time, she said no at first, but then stopped resisting as he became more agitated and her children slept nearby.</p>
<p>“She thought she had consented, because she had consented before,” Reimer says. “I told her that just because you consent once, it’s not a blanket consent. Then she got it — that this time it was rape — and she got angry.”</p>
<p>Murphy, at NYU, says that when the American Law Institute began a project several years ago to rewrite sex assault laws in its 1962 Model Penal Code, consent was the first thing it tried to define. The institute — an elite body of judges, lawyers and academics — issues model laws that are often adopted by state legislatures. The project is aimed at updating the laws and dropping some particularly outdated notions, like the idea that rape cannot occur within a marriage.</p>
<p>“It’s been a laborious process,” notes Murphy. It took about five years to achieve the current consent definition , which recognizes that the essence of consent is willingness — but that how willingness is expressed depends on context.</p>
<p>Murphy says it remains to be seen whether the huge attention now being paid to sexual misconduct will accelerate the process of rewriting laws, or — as in the recent roiling debate over college campuses — make it more complicated. At RAINN, O’Connor says she is hopeful that state lawmakers will pick up the pace of updating their laws with new understandings of concepts like consent.</p>
<p>“We’ll see how all this plays out, because when you train the national spotlight on it, suddenly action is born,” O’Connor says.</p>
<p>Most important, she says, is for people to recognize that a lack of consent can be expressed in many different ways.</p>
<p>“Yes, there is a legal definition for each state,” she says. “But at the end of the day a survivor knows whether or not they consented. I want the message to go out that the criminal activity of another is never a victim’s fault, and that extends to the issue of consent.”</p> | In sex assault laws, definition of consent varies widely | false | https://abqjournal.com/1107697/in-society-and-in-law-definition-of-consent-is-a-gray-area.html | 2017-12-16 | 2 |
<p>Ecuador’s transformation during the presidency of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and the Citizens Revolution stands as great step forward for the worldwide struggle against the 1%.&#160; President Correa, who leaves office &#160;May 24, came to power in a country controlled by a super-rich elite, dependent on oil and commodities exports. Ecuador still suffered from the devastating effects of corrupt banker dealings, which caused the currency and peoples’ savings to lose two-thirds of their value, leading to the US dollar becoming the new national currency. Governments preceding Correa instituted neoliberal austerity and privatization programs, causing inequality, poverty and unemployment to soar. Ecuador became one of the poorest and least developed nations in the region. Poverty rates reached 56% of the population, and from 1998-2003 <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ecuador-mass-emigration-return-migration" type="external">close to 2 million</a> Ecuadorans out of a population of 12-13 million, over 1 in 10, had left the country for economic reasons.</p>
<p>William Blum, in <a href="https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope" type="external">Killing Hope</a>, wrote that the CIA in Ecuador “infiltrated, often at the highest levels, almost all political organizations of significance, from the far left to the far right.” &#160;“In virtually every department of the Ecuadorian government could be found men occupying positions high and low who collaborated with the CIA for money. At one point, the agency could count among this number the men who were second and third in power in the country.” <a href="#_ftn1" type="external">[1]</a> Ecuador was also saddled with the US’s largest air base in the region at Manta, instrumental in Plan Colombia and in enforcing international banking and corporate rule over Ecuador.</p>
<p>Ecuador’s economic collapse and social explosion was similar to Greece’s a few years later. But in 2006, after nine presidents in ten years, the Ecuadoran people elected Rafael Correa, who was no capitulating Greek Syriza Prime Minister Tsipras or Berrnie Sanders. Correa’s government carried out programs that peoples in progressive social movements have advocated throughout the West, if not the world. Ecuador provides an example for what Greece could have done when its crisis hit, if it had a firm anti-neoliberal, anti-imperialist leadership.</p>
<p>Ecuador’s Citizens Revolution, not a socialist revolution as in Cuba, arose from a popular repudiation of neoliberalism and neocolonialism, similar to Chavista Venezuela and Evo’s Bolivia. It shows what can be accomplished with social programs and infrastructure investments when national wealth is redirected to benefit the majority instead of the 1%, while still confined in a capitalist system.</p>
<p>What did Rafael Correa do?</p>
<p>Correa was fortunate to be part of a South American resurgence, exemplified by the 1998 election victory of Hugo Chavez, which stimulated anti-neoliberal anti-imperialist movements also coming to power in Bolivia and to a much lesser extent in Brazil and Argentina. As with Chavez’ Venezuela and Evo’s Bolivia, Ecuador approved a new constitution by national referendum that includes a new social contract enshrining the rights of Mother Earth, the rights of Original Peoples, and protections for &#160;national sovereignty over natural resources.</p>
<p>Correa rejected IMF and World Bank policies, which had made Ecuador numerous loans to entrap the country in debt, a way for the imperial countries to dominate the rest of the world. Ecuador’s debt was $14 billion in 1980, the country paid back $7 billion, and it still owed $14 billion. The IMF demanded cuts in wages and state budgets, that 80% of the oil revenues go to debt payment, or it would use international courts to seize their ships and their contents.</p>
<p>Correa renounced $3.9 billion of the debt (one-third of the total) found to be illegitimate, showing, he said, “government has the power to cancel debt” with clear lessons for Greece, Spain and Ireland. The savings were invested in people’s needs.</p>
<p>His government increased taxes on the rich, and cut down on tax evasion which bled government revenues. “The government is now collecting the taxes owed by companies” which Correa half-jokingly said was “a radical innovation in the capitalist world.” Government fund <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/the-g77-will-push-for-tax-justice-through-a-un-tax-body-says-ecuador-s-foreign-affairs-minister-89442" type="external">s quadrupled</a>. He also instituted a tax on capital flight, generating $1 billion in revenue between 2012-2015. <a href="#_ftn2" type="external">[2]</a></p>
<p>He required the Central Bank to repatriate billions in assets held abroad, and renegotiated oil contracts with multinationals on much more favorable terms. These new funds enabled the government to triple investments in infrastructure and public services, such as housing, free education and health care. The economy was diversifying, away from dependence on oil, so that now non-oil exports account <a href="" type="internal">for 64% of export income</a>.</p>
<p>These measures enabled Ecuador to experience 4.2% annual growth from 2007-2015, even during the 2008-2009 international financial crisis brought on by Wall Street corruption. Not only has its economic growth been among the best in the region, but it has favored the poorest in the country, making Ecuador a leader in reducing inequality. Unemployment is now down to 5.2%.</p>
<p>Since 2014 the national income shrank as oil and commodity prices hit near record lows.&#160; In 2016 Ecuador was hit by a major earthquake, its worst natural disaster in 70 years, killing 668 people, and causing $3.3 billion in damages, equal to 3% of the GDP, harming the economy. Ecuador has also been hurt by the rise in the dollar, making its exports more expensive. These combined to create a recession in Ecuador, after years of impressive growth.&#160; However, by December 2016, the rate of <a href="" type="internal">economic growth had risen to 3.3%</a>, with an <a href="" type="internal">inflation rate of only 1%</a></p>
<p>Contrary to stories that Ecuador is now crushed by debts to China (which stepped in after Western banks cut lending), the country actually reports one of the lowest debt levels in Latin America. At the end of 2016&#160; Ecuador reported a <a href="http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadors-foreign-debt-lower-under-current-administration-under-previous-ten-governments.html" type="external">foreign debt of 25.7%</a> relative to the GDP and its total debt is 26.9%.&#160; This is lower than under preceding presidents.</p>
<p>Education: The Key to Developing and Diversifying the Economy</p>
<p>Correa has said “quality, free public education is the basis of a real democracy,” and that the path away from a Third World raw material export dependent economy lies in <a href="http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuadorian-government-inaugurates-school-year-newly-built-millennium-schools-amazon.html" type="external">raising the educational and skill level of the population</a>. Consequently, over $20 billion has been invested in education over his ten year presidency. Not only is education free, including university, but to reduce barriers for low-income students the government provides free school supplies, books, uniforms, and meals. Now more than 300,000 children who used have to work go to school.</p>
<p>Ecuador is completing a program of building 14 schools focused on teaching and preserving the country’s various ancestral ethnic languages. So far Quechua and <a href="https://www.equaltimes.org/guardians-of-the-language-schools#.WOO_PW_yvIU" type="external">Shuar language schools</a> are operating.&#160;Royalties from nearby mining and oil projects now are allocated to help fund many of the advanced and modern schools being built in the indigenous countryside.</p>
<p>In contrast to the U.S., where student loan debt is now <a href="" type="internal">$1.3 trillion</a>, in Ecuador free education is a human right, guaranteed through university. In 2015 the country had the second highest level of public investment in higher education in the world. Over <a href="http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/investment-school-infrastructure-ecuador-amounts-11-bn.html" type="external">$1 billion has been invested</a> in&#160;university construction, including in the Amazon region to specifically serve the Original Peoples of the country. These government efforts, combined with student stipends, have led to the number of poor students in university doubling, while the number of Original Peoples gaining university degrees has almost tripled. Compared to 2006, now <a href="" type="internal">a quarter million</a> more Ecuadorans are in university.</p>
<p>Social Programs to Fight Poverty</p>
<p>Ecuador’s minimum wage has more than doubled, from $170 a month in 2007 to $375 today, one of the highest in Latin America. The minimum wage, unlike the case with US minimum wage earners, covers the cost of the basic basket of goods, whereas in <a href="" type="internal">2006 it covered only 68%</a>. <a href="#_ftn3" type="external">[3]</a></p>
<p>In the US, the minimum wage has fallen by 1/3 since 1968, and here, people normally do not have free health care. Moreover, Ecuador has enforced a living wage policy, revolutionary if instituted in the US:&#160; companies cannot pay dividends until all employees earn a living wage.</p>
<p>The labor of homemakers, contributing to 15% of the GDP, is now legally recognized. Consequently, 1.5 million homemakers, and so their families, now receive social security benefits, including disability compensation and pension.</p>
<p>The Bono de Desarollo Humano [Human Development Bonus] of $50 a month aids 1.3 million poor families with children. Now 328,000 three and four year-olds go to pre-school, compared to <a href="" type="internal">27,470 in 2007</a>.</p>
<p>These Citizens Revolution programs to serve the people, combined with major investments in infrastructure and economic development, have <a href="" type="internal">reduced the poverty rate</a> from 37.6% in 2007 to 22% today.&#160; Rural poverty has been reduced from 61% to 35%. Extreme poverty has been cut in half, from 13% of the population in 2006 to <a href="" type="internal">5.7 % now</a>. Poverty among Afro-descendants, 7% of the population, dropped&#160;by over 20%. In a country of 16.5 million today, in ten years two million have risen out of poverty.</p>
<p>In contrast, 46.7 million US people live below the poverty line, 15% of Americans, up from 12.3% in 2006 ( <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/undocumented-immigrants-arent-who-you-think-they-are/" type="external">including the undocumented poor</a>, it is over 50 million.)&#160; The Black population in poverty totaled 26.2% in 2014, up from <a href="" type="internal">24.7% in 2007</a>.</p>
<p>Ecuador slashed income inequality: before, the richest 10% of the population had 42 times as much as the poorest 10%, now&#160; it is 22 times as much, one of the greatest reductions in inequality in Latin America.</p>
<p>Health Care</p>
<p>In contrast to the U.S. corporate for profit health system, Correa has <a href="" type="internal">invested over $16 billion</a> in providing quality free health care, eight times that between 2000-2006. In the 40 years prior to the Citizens Revolution, not one new public hospital was built in any of the main cities. Since then, 13 <a href="http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuador-went-chaos-decent-services-public-health-system.html" type="external">new hospitals</a> have been built, 18 more under construction around the country.</p>
<p>This health system has added 34,000 medical professionals. Thanks to free health care, still a dream in the United States, combined with increased access and services, the people’s visits to the doctor have almost tripled in ten years.</p>
<p>Environmental Protection</p>
<p>The United Nations recognizes only eight countries in the world as meeting the two minimum criteria for <a href="" type="internal">sustainable development</a>. In the Americas, there are two, Cuba and Ecuador. &#160;They enjoy “high human development”(“very high” human development in the case of Cuba) while keeping their Ecological Footprint lower than 1.7 global hectares per person, according to Global Footprint Network and United Nations data.</p>
<p>Ecuador made major advances in converting to renewable energy. Correa noted, “Thanks to the investment made in energy generation made in the last 10 years, with immense cooperation from China, Ecuador now counts on 85 percent [ <a href="http://www.importantcool.com/plutocrat-defeated-21st-century-lenin-ecuadorian-elections/" type="external">now&#160; 95%]</a> renewable energy, one of the highest percentages on the <a href="" type="internal">planet.</a>”</p>
<p>By 2015 Ecuador had cut the rate of deforestation in half, and plans <a href="" type="internal">to reduce it to zero</a> this year. Part of this includes reforestation, and the country broke the Guinness world record for the number of <a href="" type="internal">trees planted</a> in a day. The country also pays communities, mostly in the Amazon, <a href="http://www.importantcool.com/plutocrat-defeated-21st-century-lenin-ecuadorian-elections/" type="external">to protect forests</a> by permitting only fishing and hunting within them.</p>
<p>For the third straight year, Ecuador has won the award, “World’s Leading <a href="" type="internal">Green Destination</a> 2016” by the World Travel Awards, regarded as the Oscars of tourism.</p>
<p>Defending Original Peoples’ and LGBT Rights&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>To preserve Original Peoples’ identity, besides providing a system of new schools in native languages, the government has fostered public TV and radio stations which promote programs in Quechua and other languages. These have boosted the use of different endangered native languages and strengthened Original Peoples’ identity and pride. The 2013 Media Law gave the indigenous communities even greater access to community media. By December 2014, 14 radio frequencies, combined with funding and training, have been assigned to each of the country’s indigenous groups.</p>
<p>It is now illegal for employers to discriminate due to sexual orientation, the government cracks down on “gay treatment centers” where LGBT people are forced to undergo “treatments” meant to change their sexual orientation. Same-sex unions are legal and a gender identity law allows citizens to state on their ID their gender identity instead of the sex given at birth.</p>
<p>Affirmative action laws now require companies to reserve 4% of jobs for people with disabilities, and other quotas for minority ethnic groups, such as Original Peoples and Afro-descendants, in order to combat discrimination and narrow inequality gaps.</p>
<p>This year a UN Department of Public Information linked NGO recognized Ecuador for <a href="http://www.andes.info.ec/en/news/ecuador-worlds-example-implementation-public-policies-favor-people-disabilities.html" type="external">its innovative public policy for people with disabilities</a>. Correa noted, “Ecuador would have never been a world model in the past. We now set an example to the planet in many areas as in this case with programs for people with disabilities.”</p>
<p>The UN special rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples also <a href="" type="internal">highlighted the efforts</a> of Ecuador and Bolivia to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She declared that Ecuador and Bolivia are unique in their efforts to enact the charter into law.</p>
<p>Democratizing the Media</p>
<p>“When we came into government in 2007, there were five TV channels in Ecuador, four of them owned by the four biggest banks in the country,” noted Culture Minister Guillaume Long. The <a href="http://fair.org/extra/muzzling-critics-or-building-media-democracy/" type="external">media law</a>, passed by national referendum, prohibits banks from owning the media. It redistributes the airwaves into three parts: a third for private, for state-owned, and for community grassroots outlets. A company cannot own more than one AM station, one FM station and one television station. This is an important advance, but the oligarchy still dominates the media. Foreign minister Ricardo Patino explained on <a href="" type="internal">Democracy Now</a>&#160; “What we’re doing is promoting the broadening of freedom and access to media…. There were no public TV, no public media, no public radio, no public newspaper. Now there are. And this allows there to be a diversity of media. And now they attack us for reducing freedom of speech.”</p>
<p>Anti-Imperialist Foreign Policy</p>
<p>In 2009 Ecuador joined ALBA (Alianza Bolivariana de los Pueblos de América), the anti-imperialist alliance of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and some Caribbean countries. The alliance has stood firm against US interference in Latin America and the Middle East, and cultivated relations with Russia, China and Iran in part to counter US power. Ecuador has also been a leader in regional cooperation and integration.</p>
<p>Correa shut the US military base at Manta in 2009, saying “We can negotiate with the U.S. about a base in Manta, if they let us put a military base in Miami.” These bases are used to assure US control of other nations natural resources, and kicking a base out of the country is often met with US retaliation. &#160;A US involved coup was attempted against Correa in 2010.</p>
<p>Despite intense pressure from the US and the West, Correa granted political asylum to Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, who Hillary Clinton actually inquired about <a href="http://truepundit.com/under-intense-pressure-to-silence-wikileaks-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-proposed-drone-strike-on-julian-assange/" type="external">how to kill</a>. Asked about Chávez calling George Bush “the Devil” at the U.N., Correa replied that the comparison was unfair to the <a href="" type="internal">Devil</a>.</p>
<p>Correa not only repudiated part of Ecuador external debt to Western Banks, but expelled the World Bank’s manager, the US ambassador, USAID,&#160; and some US backed NGOs.</p>
<p>Ecuador vastly expanded ties with China, which now helps finance projects, including renewable energy, technology and educational institutions. These contribute to national economic growth and ensure that the profits stay in the country. Chinese investments, Correa said, are “an example for Latin America and for the rest of the world.”</p>
<p>Three Revolutionary Initiatives</p>
<p>Yasuni Initiative</p>
<p>Ecuador made the revolutionary proposal to leave the Amazon Yasuni oil in the ground to preserve the Yasuni’s unique biodiversity as a world treasure and carbon sink. In exchange, the country wanted compensation from the global polluting countries, a type of recognition of their ecological debt. The project was not just for Ecuador, but for the whole world – a signal about the need to control global warming, to live in harmony with nature and our fellow beings. Correa stated that no conservation will work that is not tied to people’s improved standard of living.</p>
<p>The Correa government offered&#160; not to drill oil in the Yasuni in exchange for 50% of the value of the reserves, $3.6 billion. However, the six-year initiative fell on deaf ears in the West. As a result, the Correa government opened a mere 3/4 square mile area of the Yasuni to drilling, within the 3800 square mile&#160;park. (In comparison, Canada’s tar sands mining/strip-mining will destroy 1160 square miles of the Canadian Boreal Forest, 1500 times as much. Canada now leads the world in deforestation.) <a href="#_ftn4" type="external">[4]</a></p>
<p>Establish an International Court for Environmental Justice</p>
<p>At the Paris COP21 2015 Climate Summit, Correa called for an International Court of Environmental Justice to punish corporate and developed countries’ environmental crimes and for reparations for their ecological debt. Rich countries have a debt to the Global South because of their plundering of resources, their carbon dioxide emissions, their continuous production of technological waste and their role in climate change. <a href="" type="internal">He noted</a>, “Someone in a rich country emits&#160;38 times more carbon dioxide than someone from a poor country,” there is a planetary emergency that demands worldwide action, an ecological debt that should be paid.</p>
<p>Corporations have international courts to protect their overseas investments, but developing countries do not have courts to protect their environment from these corporations. Countries can be sued for a financial debt, but there should be suits for ecological debts.</p>
<p>The case against <a href="http://chevrontoxico.com/" type="external">Chevron</a> would be a prime example. In 2011, Chevron was ordered to pay $9.5 billion for environmental and public health damage for having contaminated part of the Amazon home to more than 30,000 people. In contrast to BP in the Gulf of Mexico, Chevron deliberately dumped 19 billion gallons of oil waste, a quantity 140 times that by BP.&#160; So far 1400 are proven to have died from the environmental contamination. With $266 billion in assets in 2015, Chevron refuses to pay. An International Court of Environmental Justice could end this blatant criminality.</p>
<p>Campaign Against International Tax Havens</p>
<p>Ecuador has stated that wealthy citizens and companies hide $30 billion in overseas tax havens, equivalent to one third of Ecuador’s GDP, siphoning off national wealth. Ecuador just approved a groundbreaking referendum, stating politicians and public servants be barred from holding office if they hold assets in tax havens. Those affected will have a year to repatriate their assets.</p>
<p>The issue of illegal capital flight and tax havens is a global problem, with $7.6 trillion – <a href="http://www.thepricewepay.ca/" type="external">$21-$30 trillion</a>, adding corporate funds –&#160; lost to countries through capital flight, contributing to poverty and inequality. The developing world loses over <a href="" type="internal">$200 billion</a> a year in lost tax revenue because of tax havens.</p>
<p>Ecuador, as the new chair of the Group of 77 (134 Global South countries) is leading a campaign both for the elimination of tax havens and the creation of a new UN judicial body to regulate tax havens and recoup lost tax revenue.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Long</a> said “Corporations and wealthy people who avoid their obligations to pay taxes participate in denying the human rights of others, with every school that is not built, every medicine that is not bought for lack of funds, because the state doesn’t own the necessary financial resources.” “We can’t allow the practices of tax evasion and the tools used for it to continue to build an unjust economic system designed to enrich a small minority at the expense of the great majorities. It’s time to end these practices.”</p>
<p>US and Right Wing Campaign Against&#160;Core</p>
<p>As in Venezuela and also Bolivia, the US rulers, the domestic oligarchy and its rightwing supporters have sought to combat the progressive gains. Between 2012-2015, just one US agency, NED, supplied&#160; anti-Citizens Revolution political parties, trade unions, indigenous groups, and media with $30 million to foment protests. In 2013 USAID and NED spent $24&#160; million in Ecuador, with their combined allocations for Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia totaled over $60 million.</p>
<p>However, the US campaign against Correa started even before he first decided to run for president as documented in a <a href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/taxonomy/term/5517" type="external">Green Left Weekly</a> series and <a href="" type="internal">Wikileaks</a>.</p>
<p>The first attempted US backed coup against Correa took place in September 2010, when he was temporarily held hostage by US-infiltrated police forces. The second came in summer 2015, when the oligarchy media and the right-wing deliberately misinformed the Ecuadorean public about <a href="" type="internal">two bills</a> aimed at increasing taxes on the wealthiest 2% to counter inequality in the country. These were later joined by some pro-opposition indigenous groups (CONAIE, Pachakutik, Ecuarunari – the latter two receiving USAID funding) and a few unions. Many of the protests turned violent, with attacks on police that left one hundred police injured. The lack of popular support led these protests to fizzle.</p>
<p>Corporate and much alternative media present the story that the indigenous are repressed by the government for opposing “extractivism.” <a href="#_ftn5" type="external">[5]</a> This is based on the selective focus and distorted reporting on a few indigenous groups. In reality most indigenous groups repudiate the conduct of the few anti-Correa ones. <a href="#_ftn6" type="external">[6]</a></p>
<p>Since Correa was elected president, over <a href="" type="internal">$800 million</a> from abroad have gone to foreign NGOs in Ecuador. A number of Western NGOs (e.g. Amazon Watch, Pachamama Foundation) and liberal-left media (e.g., <a href="http://www.importantcool.com/six-ways-the-guardian-is-wrong-about-ecuador-again/" type="external">Guardian</a>, <a href="" type="internal">NACLA Reports</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Jacobin</a>) have engaged in a propaganda campaign against the Citizens Revolution, claiming it represses the Original Peoples, sold the Amazon and its oil to China, undercut&#160; media freedom, shut down (Western financed) NGOs. Much of this is <a href="" type="internal">fake news,</a> and cannot explain why the Original People vote for Correa was slightly higher than among the general population (In 2013 Correa won with 58% of the vote and <a href="" type="internal">over 60% of indigenous</a> vote).</p>
<p>Conclusion</p>
<p>Ecuador, still a relatively poor Third World country, has made achievements we can still only dream of here: free health care, free university education, effective anti-poverty programs, democratizing the media, environmental protection, respect for the rights of oppressed groups such as LBGTs and Original Peoples, repudiation of debt gouging by the banks, increasing taxes on the rich, clean elections. It has taken the initiative, along with President Evo Morales of Bolivia, in demanding action by the West in combating climate change and in shutting down tax havens. The challenges facing Ecuador remain the continued power of the old neoliberal ruling elite in the country, the need to further diversify the economy, to eliminate poverty, and the need to build an organized, politically active mass structure to carry on the Citizens Revolution.</p>
<p>The accomplishments of the Citizens Revolution have made President Correa <a href="" type="internal">one of the most popular presidents</a> in Latin America. Moreover, in a poll of 18 Latin American countries,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Ecuador ranked the highest</a> in citizens’&#160;evaluation of their country’s government, in reduction of corruption, and distribution of wealth. Yet, “The greatest achievement of this revolution is having recovered pride and hope. We recovered our country,” said Correa speaking on the 10th anniversary of the revolution.</p>
<p>Notes.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" type="external">[1]</a> p. 153, 154</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" type="external">[2]</a> <a href="" type="internal">http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/ecuador-2017-02.pdf</a>, p. 4 <a href="#_ftnref3" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref4" type="external">[4]</a>&#160; The story propagated in the West is that the indigenous oppose the oil drilling. Yet, as previous CONAIE president, Humberto Cholango, noted “Many nationalities of the Amazonia say “look, we are the owners of the territory, and yes <a href="" type="internal">we want it to be exploited</a>”&#160; understanding that leaving valuable natural resources untouched while people go without schools, roads,&#160; medical care, employment, hurts their own interests.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref5" type="external">[5]</a> The real issue hidden by behind the term “extractivism” is who controls the natural resources of oppressed nations:&#160; the imperial powers or these nations themselves. A central issue of “extractivism” is buried: who uses natural resources for whose interests, who benefits. Ecuador have taken control of its natural resources from Western corporations, and uses the wealth produced to improve the lives of the people.</p>
<p>Ecuador Minister <a href="" type="internal">Long</a> questions whether “it would be right to simply stop extracting oil before we have completed or even engineered the transition to a non-primary economy. Aside from the collapse of the Ecuadorian state, it would mean a sharp return to the plantation economy (and owner!), a dramatic reduction of resources to tackle poverty (one of the principal causes of environmental degradation in the first place), and no capital to invest in the diversification of our economy.</p>
<p>“This cannot be a serious proposal, especially if we consider that the greatest threat to our biodiversity, the utmost cause of deforestation and environmental ruin in Ecuador is poverty and the aggressive advance of the agricultural frontier. Poverty and the lack of infrastructure means many precarious towns and cities still offload their waste into ever-more-polluted Amazonian rivers.”</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref6" type="external">[6]</a> “Everyone needs to know that CONAIE is not the only indigenous voice in the country,” declared <a href="" type="internal">Franklin Columba</a>, leader of the National Confederation of Campesino, Indigenous and Black Organizations (FENOCIN). &#160;He said that FENOCIN has rejected CONAIE’s call for a national strike because “we as a national organization are not going to lend ourselves <a href="" type="internal">to playing the right’s game,</a>” referring to the wealthy right-wing opposition who have used the momentum of current protests to denounce laws to redistribute the wealth in the country.</p>
<p>Jose Agualsaca, president of the Indigenous Federation of Ecuador (FEI) stated, “We believe that these marches and this uprising wants to destabilize the country, and what they really want is to overthrow President Rafael Correa from power. But it would not end there, they want to take him out, then convoke a new constitutional assembly, and make a new constitution which would serve the interests of the richest sectors of society. This is the <a href="" type="internal">position of the FEI</a>.”</p>
<p>Former CONAIE President Humberto Cholango has warned“ <a href="" type="internal">The Right wants to hijack our country</a>…. from Pachakutik’s side, some people are trying to call on the neoliberal right, led by Guillermo Lasso ex-banker and the gentlemen Nebot and the traitors of the indigenous movement, as Mr. Gutierrez.”</p>
<p>CONAIE has had a number of <a href="" type="internal">high-profile defections</a> from its ranks, including historic leaders&#160; such as Delia Caguana. Caguana said “How is possible that the leadership of CONAIE can make alliances with people from the right, given the fact that they are merely exploiting us?” “As an indigenous movement, no matter what, we are much better off (with the government) rather than joining forces with the banking oligarchy.”</p>
<p>One of CONAIE’s founders, Miguel Lluco, still an important name within the movement, provides an explanation:“The indigenous uprising is the highest level of protest that exists, if they going to use that [in August 2015], concurring with the right, it is because they have sold out the dignity of the nationalities and indigenous people of Ecuador to the right, and a consequence that is very grave and history will have to judge them….We believed [Herrerea, the CONAIE president] would correctly lead this historic, important organization … but instead has aligned himself with <a href="" type="internal">the interests of Ecuador’s right-wing</a>.”</p>
<p>Olindo Nastacuaz, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Coast, said his organization would no participate in ant-Correa protests, saying, “We are not going to <a href="" type="internal">act as a stepping stone for the right</a>.”</p>
<p>Maria Clara Sharupi, a poet and grassroots leader from the Shuar nation, agrees there is little support on the ground for this uprising and categorically ruled out the participation of her community in the uprising. “Wherever we find ourselves, we are going to say ‘no’ to this uprising and this mobilization.” She added, the uprising has been “imposed” on communities by a group of people aligned with bankers and the old elite, frustrated with a socialist government.</p>
<p>“I want to tell the bankers, the right, the opposition, those who seek to destabilize this country, the Amazon and the indigenous peoples, in this case the Shuar men and women, we are not your property,” said <a href="" type="internal">Sharupi</a>.</p>
<p>The December 2016 violent incidents in Morona Santiago, which left one police shot dead and seven wounded, was presented in the West as the Shuar people resisting a Chinese mining company. In fact the Shuar leaders have <a href="http://www.elciudadano.gob.ec/lideres-shuar-se-manifiestan-contra-violencia-criminal-en-morona-santiago/" type="external">condemned these acts</a> and have called for prosecution.</p> | Ecuador’s Accomplishments Under the 10 Years of Rafael Correa’s Citizen’s Revolution | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/04/14/ecuadors-accomplishments-under-the-10-years-of-rafael-correas-citizens-revolution/ | 2017-04-14 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>PHOENIX — The federal government has reached another settlement for cleanup work at abandoned uranium mines across the Navajo Nation.</p>
<p>The U.S. Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency and tribe announced a settlement agreement Tuesday with two affiliated subsidiaries of Freeport-McMoRan for the cleanup of 94 abandoned uranium mines on the vast reservation.</p>
<p>The mining operations stretched from western New Mexico into Arizona and southern Utah. The last uranium mine shut down in 1986.</p>
<p>Under a proposed consent decree filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, Cyprus Amax Minerals Company and Western Nuclear Inc. will perform the work and the federal government will contribute about half of the more than $600 million cleanup costs.</p>
<p>Funds are committed to begin the cleanup process at more than 200 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Another settlement for Navajo Nation abandoned mines cleanup | false | https://abqjournal.com/930204/another-settlement-for-navajo-nation-abandoned-mines-cleanup.html | 2 |
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<p>BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — South Sudan’s armed opposition on Sunday accused government troops of violating a cease-fire just hours after it came into effect.</p>
<p>A statement by opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said government troops have been “bombarding” opposition positions in Yei county and launched an attack in Koch county Sunday morning that opposition forces “repulsed.”</p>
<p>Gabriel said government troops also were en route to launch another attack in the Wau area. “It is a matter of time before they reach our positions,” he said.</p>
<p>These are the first reported violations of the cease-fire that went into effect just after midnight. The warring sides agreed to the cessation of hostilities on Thursday after days of internationally mediated talks in neighboring Ethiopia.</p>
<p>South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press that “How can we violate the cease-fire? It just went into effect. ... We can only fire back in self-defense.”</p>
<p>The East African country is entering its fifth year of civil war. No one knows how many tens of thousands of people have been killed. Parts of the nation are on the brink of starvation and two million people have fled to neighboring countries.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the U.N. Security Council warned of “costs or consequences” for South Sudan’s government and opposition if they undermine efforts to implement the 2015 peace deal. Consequences could include further sanctions.</p>
<p>Under the new agreement, the warring sides also committed to grant badly needed humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas and to release prisoners of war, political prisoners and abducted women and children.</p>
<p>South Sudan plunged into ethnic violence in December 2013, just two years after a long-fought-for independence from Sudan, when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, started battling those loyal to his former vice president, Riek Machar, a Nuer.</p>
<p>The U.N. and others have warned against ethnic violence and other abuses, including the recruitment of children as soldiers and the widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.</p>
<p>BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — South Sudan’s armed opposition on Sunday accused government troops of violating a cease-fire just hours after it came into effect.</p>
<p>A statement by opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said government troops have been “bombarding” opposition positions in Yei county and launched an attack in Koch county Sunday morning that opposition forces “repulsed.”</p>
<p>Gabriel said government troops also were en route to launch another attack in the Wau area. “It is a matter of time before they reach our positions,” he said.</p>
<p>These are the first reported violations of the cease-fire that went into effect just after midnight. The warring sides agreed to the cessation of hostilities on Thursday after days of internationally mediated talks in neighboring Ethiopia.</p>
<p>South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told The Associated Press that “How can we violate the cease-fire? It just went into effect. ... We can only fire back in self-defense.”</p>
<p>The East African country is entering its fifth year of civil war. No one knows how many tens of thousands of people have been killed. Parts of the nation are on the brink of starvation and two million people have fled to neighboring countries.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the U.N. Security Council warned of “costs or consequences” for South Sudan’s government and opposition if they undermine efforts to implement the 2015 peace deal. Consequences could include further sanctions.</p>
<p>Under the new agreement, the warring sides also committed to grant badly needed humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas and to release prisoners of war, political prisoners and abducted women and children.</p>
<p>South Sudan plunged into ethnic violence in December 2013, just two years after a long-fought-for independence from Sudan, when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, started battling those loyal to his former vice president, Riek Machar, a Nuer.</p>
<p>The U.N. and others have warned against ethnic violence and other abuses, including the recruitment of children as soldiers and the widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.</p> | 1st violations reported of South Sudan’s new cease-fire | false | https://apnews.com/61be95702c1a46b5bb135eed306e8e80 | 2017-12-24 | 2 |
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The case arrives with all the routine of a traffic citation: A baby boy, just 4 days old and exposed to heroin in his mother's womb, is shuddering through withdrawal in intensive care, his fate now here in a shabby courthouse that hosts a parade of human misery.</p>
<p>The parents nod off as Judge Marilyn Moores explains the legal process, and tests arrive back showing both continue to use heroin. The judge briefly chastises, a grandmother sobs, and by the time the hearing is over, yet another child is left in the arms of strangers because of his parents' addiction.</p>
<p>There is little surprise in any of this, for it's become a persistent presence at Indianapolis' juvenile court. A Monday with a heroin-dependent newborn spills into a Tuesday in which a trembling mother admits breaking her 70-day clean streak with a four-day bender. A Wednesday with two children found in a car beside a mother passed out on pills fades into a Thursday with a teen who found both his mother and grandmother overdosed on heroin.</p>
<p>Across the U.S., soaring use of opioids has forced tens of thousands of children from their homes, creating a generation of kids abandoned by addicted parents, orphaned because of fatal overdoses or torn from fractured families by authorities fearful of leaving them in drug-addled chaos.</p>
<p>"This isn't a trickle. This isn't a wave. It's a tsunami," Moores said of a child welfare system grappling with an unprecedented crush of parental drug cases.</p>
<p>From her first full year on the bench in 2006 through last year, the number of filings for children in need of services more than tripled to 4,649 in Marion County, driven largely by cases involving opioids — a glimpse of a problem that has swept across communities of all sizes.</p>
<p>Behind each of those cases is a child subjected to the realities of life amid addiction — of barren fridges, unwelcome visitors and parents who couldn't be roused awake. Moores is still haunted by the story of a 2-year-old found alone at home with his father's corpse, a needle still poking from his arm. A neighbor was drawn in by the boy's relentless wails.</p>
<p>By Friday, the largest pile of cases on Moores' desk has reached a towering two feet, and she has plodded on in bureaucratic fights to get more judges, more court reporters and more mediators to deal with work in which the despair dwarfs the fleeting moments of hope.</p>
<p>"It seems like there's a whole generation of people disappearing," Moores said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>In Miami, a 10-year-old boy died after the painkiller fentanyl somehow found its way into his system. In Philadelphia, a library once known for its after-school programs is now such a magnet for heroin users that the staff practices overdose drills. From New York to Kentucky, schools stock the overdose antidote naloxone in the nurse's office.</p>
<p>As opioids have thrived, children have suffered. And families are being torn apart, again and again.</p>
<p>New foster care cases involving parents who are using drugs have hit the highest point in more than three decades of record-keeping, accounting for 92,000 children entering the system in 2016, according to just-released data by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>The crisis is so severe — with a 32 percent spike in drug-related cases from 2012 to 2016 — it reversed a trend that had the foster care system shrinking in size over the preceding decade. All told, about 274,000 children entered foster care in the U.S. last year. A total of 437,000 children were in the system as of Sept. 30, 2016.</p>
<p>Though substance abuse has long been an issue for child welfare officials, this is the most prolific wave of children affected by addiction since crack cocaine use surged in the 1980s, and experts said opioid-use is driving the increase.</p>
<p>Among the states with the biggest one-year increases in their foster care population were Georgia, West Virginia and Indiana.</p>
<p>"It's been an overburdening of our system," said Cindy Booth, executive director of Child Advocates of Marion County, which represents kids at the center of drug cases.</p>
<p>The Associated Press delved further into the troubling numbers, examining county-level foster care statistics obtained from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect through the end of 2015. The analysis showed counties with higher levels of opioid prescribing and opioid deaths also had higher shares of foster cases linked to drugs. Last year's county-level statistics are not yet available.</p>
<p>The data show that foster children of drug users are on average about three years younger than others in the system. Indeed, a wave of babies born to opioid-using mothers has led hospitals to add detox programs for pregnant women and save umbilical cords in case they need to pinpoint what drug an infant was exposed to. Volunteers are enlisted to cuddle heroin-dependent babies — often born premature and underweight with a distinctive high-pitched cry and tremors in their arms and legs.</p>
<p>In Indiana, drug-related foster cases shot up more than sixfold between 2000 and 2015. Vanderburgh County, with a population of 179,000, had more children of drug users enter foster care than major cities including Seattle, Miami and Las Vegas. And here in Marion County, cases involving drugs went from about 20 percent of foster children in 2010 to 50 percent five years later.</p>
<p>Stephanie Shene, who started in 2003 as a case manager at the state Department of Child Services, recalled how use of heroin and other opioids went from a virtual non-issue to a constant part of her day. She and her colleagues became increasingly vigilant looking for shaking, fidgety parents or needle marks on their arms, behind ears and between fingers.</p>
<p>Her agency has added more than 1,200 workers in four years and its budget has increased from $793 million to more than $1 billion. Keeping up with the caseload remains a challenge, though, and turnover among case managers is high. Especially maddening is the huge number of parents who can't stay clean long enough to get their kids back or keep them.</p>
<p>Shene remembers one of her first cases, a mother whose four children were taken because of her morphine and heroin addiction. Just 10 months after getting clean and regaining custody, the woman not only had returned to drugs but had given birth to a heroin-dependent baby.</p>
<p>"Stuff like that is hard to look at," she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>By the time Rachael Stark arrives at her office at 8:45 a.m., she has already been working for hours. At 2:30 a.m., it was a call seeking an emergency placement for a child. Around 4 a.m., a series of texts alerted her that an alarm went off at a foster home and police showed up. Since 8 a.m., she's been furiously tapping away at her phone, juggling 15 foster cases. Now she's splashed with coffee and running late for a 9 o'clock appointment when a state DCS worker calls looking for a foster family for three siblings.</p>
<p>"I've got no one," she reports somberly.</p>
<p>For the past 13 years, Stark has managed cases for The Villages, the largest private foster care and adoption agency in Indiana, which contracts with the state to find children homes. All but a few of her cases involve drugs and of those that do, about half are opioid-related.</p>
<p>The Villages is receiving 30 to 40 percent more referrals than it had been accustomed to, creating a "crisis state," as the agency's president, Sharon Pierce, puts it. Foster parent training sessions, once held monthly, are now weekly; advertising to attract new families has been ramped up. It takes at least three months to recruit, screen and train foster parents, but as soon as they get their state license, the need for help is so great they often receive an immediate call.</p>
<p>"Five or 10 minutes later, that family will have two or three children placed in their home," Pierce said.</p>
<p>The Villages used to see about 60 percent of children return to their birth families. Today it's around half that. So the agency turns to successful foster parents to adopt. The problem is that limits the family's ability to take on another foster child, creating the need for even more foster homes.</p>
<p>"So then we jump back on the treadmill," Pierce said.</p>
<p>The agency has added a few employees, but it's largely up to case managers like Stark to cope with the surging workload. She crisscrosses farm-lined stretches of Grant County, about 90 miles northeast of Indianapolis, driving beside fields of corn and soybeans in the rush to make her next appointment. The county's drug-involved foster caseload grew from nine in 2000 to 48 in 2015.</p>
<p>Stark makes her first stop at the foster home of a 5-year-old girl who answers "hot fudge sundae ice cream" when asked what happens when she meets her therapist; the child's mother is in jail. The second home is a whirl of sailing plastic cups, bouncing rubber balls and kids jumping on furniture, with six children, two of them foster placements, in perpetual motion. The foster mother, Megan Carender, hopes to adopt the children but is prepared if their stay is temporary: "No matter what, this was a place that they were loved and that they were taken care of."</p>
<p>It goes like this all day for Stark, a series of visits and a blur of calls and texts interrupted by sighs and talk of "imperfect solutions." ''We just can't keep up," she said.</p>
<p>Her third stop of the day is emblematic of the cases inundating the system. Two sisters, 9 and 10, landed in foster care because their mother got hooked on painkillers. There was no family to turn to, with their grandmother also addicted. The girls now live on a farm where sheep, cattle and hogs are raised, and they sit in the bed of a pickup, fussing over a carton of fluffy day-old chicks their foster father, Justin Lovell, picked up for them. When he notes, matter-of-factly, it won't be long before the chicks reach a size fit only for "a freezer or a frying pan," the girls' jaws drop in comical unison.</p>
<p>"You're not going to fry them!" one cries.</p>
<p>Their birth mother has already had her parental rights rescinded, and the Lovells hope to adopt. One of the girls had been in four foster homes before arriving here, the other in three. Three siblings were placed elsewhere.</p>
<p>Lovell's wife, Kristen, laments the turmoil the sisters have been through — "so many stops and starts and bumps along the way" — and that "their whole world's changing, and it's changed so many times already." Her husband simply cannot fathom how someone could put drugs before family.</p>
<p>"They had their choice," he said, "and they didn't choose their children."</p>
<p>There is no simple assessment of the impact of all of this on kids. At one extreme, there are infants born healthy who wind up in safe and loving foster homes until their birth parents get clean. At the other are children whose parents' addictions have led to their own, who find themselves hopping from foster family to foster family, or living in a group home or a strange town.</p>
<p>Fear and anxiety can amass, academic performance can plunge, feelings of abandonment can run rampant, and the ability to trust can be strained. Said Maria Cancian, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor whose research focuses on foster care and the effects on children: "When people ask me, 'Is foster care good or bad?' the first thing I say is, 'Compared to what?'"</p>
<p>Shawnee Wilson has found herself on both sides of the system.</p>
<p>Wilson's parents used, and she was 13 when child welfare officials removed her from her home. Now, at 26, she's trying to beat heroin, having already lost custody of two children and given another up at birth.</p>
<p>Her fourth child, a boy named Kingston, was born just over a year ago, and it took a month for doctors to wean him off the heroin Wilson exposed him to. He is in foster care now in Indianapolis, and Wilson is fighting to get him back.</p>
<p>Despite some relapses, she's been clean several months and is convinced she'll be able to keep it up. The clock is ticking. Federal law dictates the loss of parental rights for those whose children have been in foster care for 15 out of the previous 22 months.</p>
<p>Wilson knows how those who don't struggle with addiction view her, and said it's hard to explain what compels people to keep using even when it can cost them their children. When she's been high, she said, "I can't see the consequences, because all I want is to feel that drug. I want that numbness."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Back at juvenile court, the waiting room is brimming with people who may wait hours for their cases to be called. Babies screech. Toddlers whine. Adults emerge from courtrooms wet-eyed.</p>
<p>Moores, the plainspoken 62-year-old who leads this division, sees a familiar expression on the faces that pass through — not just parents, but case managers and attorneys and a parade of others who've seen their work overtaken by pills and powders. She saw the same blank eyes during a National Guard deployment to Afghanistan, as soldiers returned to base.</p>
<p>"They're war-weary," she said.</p>
<p>She counts herself among the battle-scarred, having presided over a court that took 1,270 children from their parents last year, more than triple a decade earlier. Cases roll in to courtrooms that once were classrooms, converted to accommodate snowballing need.</p>
<p>It is 11 p.m. on Friday now and Moores is home on her farm, clad in pajamas and awake in bed. Her phone goes off, a new crisis arrived. DCS has a boy who previously was removed from the home of his opioid-addicted mother, now needing to be taken out of the house of relatives. There are no foster families available, and the county's emergency shelters are full.</p>
<p>It won't be long before the details of the case recede from a memory crowded by a thousand others. Tonight, though, it weighs on her as she tries to drift to sleep.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sedensky, an AP national writer, reported from Indiana. Data journalist Hoyer reported from Washington.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sedensky can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/sedensky and Hoyer at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/MeghanHoyer</p>
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The case arrives with all the routine of a traffic citation: A baby boy, just 4 days old and exposed to heroin in his mother's womb, is shuddering through withdrawal in intensive care, his fate now here in a shabby courthouse that hosts a parade of human misery.</p>
<p>The parents nod off as Judge Marilyn Moores explains the legal process, and tests arrive back showing both continue to use heroin. The judge briefly chastises, a grandmother sobs, and by the time the hearing is over, yet another child is left in the arms of strangers because of his parents' addiction.</p>
<p>There is little surprise in any of this, for it's become a persistent presence at Indianapolis' juvenile court. A Monday with a heroin-dependent newborn spills into a Tuesday in which a trembling mother admits breaking her 70-day clean streak with a four-day bender. A Wednesday with two children found in a car beside a mother passed out on pills fades into a Thursday with a teen who found both his mother and grandmother overdosed on heroin.</p>
<p>Across the U.S., soaring use of opioids has forced tens of thousands of children from their homes, creating a generation of kids abandoned by addicted parents, orphaned because of fatal overdoses or torn from fractured families by authorities fearful of leaving them in drug-addled chaos.</p>
<p>"This isn't a trickle. This isn't a wave. It's a tsunami," Moores said of a child welfare system grappling with an unprecedented crush of parental drug cases.</p>
<p>From her first full year on the bench in 2006 through last year, the number of filings for children in need of services more than tripled to 4,649 in Marion County, driven largely by cases involving opioids — a glimpse of a problem that has swept across communities of all sizes.</p>
<p>Behind each of those cases is a child subjected to the realities of life amid addiction — of barren fridges, unwelcome visitors and parents who couldn't be roused awake. Moores is still haunted by the story of a 2-year-old found alone at home with his father's corpse, a needle still poking from his arm. A neighbor was drawn in by the boy's relentless wails.</p>
<p>By Friday, the largest pile of cases on Moores' desk has reached a towering two feet, and she has plodded on in bureaucratic fights to get more judges, more court reporters and more mediators to deal with work in which the despair dwarfs the fleeting moments of hope.</p>
<p>"It seems like there's a whole generation of people disappearing," Moores said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>In Miami, a 10-year-old boy died after the painkiller fentanyl somehow found its way into his system. In Philadelphia, a library once known for its after-school programs is now such a magnet for heroin users that the staff practices overdose drills. From New York to Kentucky, schools stock the overdose antidote naloxone in the nurse's office.</p>
<p>As opioids have thrived, children have suffered. And families are being torn apart, again and again.</p>
<p>New foster care cases involving parents who are using drugs have hit the highest point in more than three decades of record-keeping, accounting for 92,000 children entering the system in 2016, according to just-released data by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>The crisis is so severe — with a 32 percent spike in drug-related cases from 2012 to 2016 — it reversed a trend that had the foster care system shrinking in size over the preceding decade. All told, about 274,000 children entered foster care in the U.S. last year. A total of 437,000 children were in the system as of Sept. 30, 2016.</p>
<p>Though substance abuse has long been an issue for child welfare officials, this is the most prolific wave of children affected by addiction since crack cocaine use surged in the 1980s, and experts said opioid-use is driving the increase.</p>
<p>Among the states with the biggest one-year increases in their foster care population were Georgia, West Virginia and Indiana.</p>
<p>"It's been an overburdening of our system," said Cindy Booth, executive director of Child Advocates of Marion County, which represents kids at the center of drug cases.</p>
<p>The Associated Press delved further into the troubling numbers, examining county-level foster care statistics obtained from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect through the end of 2015. The analysis showed counties with higher levels of opioid prescribing and opioid deaths also had higher shares of foster cases linked to drugs. Last year's county-level statistics are not yet available.</p>
<p>The data show that foster children of drug users are on average about three years younger than others in the system. Indeed, a wave of babies born to opioid-using mothers has led hospitals to add detox programs for pregnant women and save umbilical cords in case they need to pinpoint what drug an infant was exposed to. Volunteers are enlisted to cuddle heroin-dependent babies — often born premature and underweight with a distinctive high-pitched cry and tremors in their arms and legs.</p>
<p>In Indiana, drug-related foster cases shot up more than sixfold between 2000 and 2015. Vanderburgh County, with a population of 179,000, had more children of drug users enter foster care than major cities including Seattle, Miami and Las Vegas. And here in Marion County, cases involving drugs went from about 20 percent of foster children in 2010 to 50 percent five years later.</p>
<p>Stephanie Shene, who started in 2003 as a case manager at the state Department of Child Services, recalled how use of heroin and other opioids went from a virtual non-issue to a constant part of her day. She and her colleagues became increasingly vigilant looking for shaking, fidgety parents or needle marks on their arms, behind ears and between fingers.</p>
<p>Her agency has added more than 1,200 workers in four years and its budget has increased from $793 million to more than $1 billion. Keeping up with the caseload remains a challenge, though, and turnover among case managers is high. Especially maddening is the huge number of parents who can't stay clean long enough to get their kids back or keep them.</p>
<p>Shene remembers one of her first cases, a mother whose four children were taken because of her morphine and heroin addiction. Just 10 months after getting clean and regaining custody, the woman not only had returned to drugs but had given birth to a heroin-dependent baby.</p>
<p>"Stuff like that is hard to look at," she said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>By the time Rachael Stark arrives at her office at 8:45 a.m., she has already been working for hours. At 2:30 a.m., it was a call seeking an emergency placement for a child. Around 4 a.m., a series of texts alerted her that an alarm went off at a foster home and police showed up. Since 8 a.m., she's been furiously tapping away at her phone, juggling 15 foster cases. Now she's splashed with coffee and running late for a 9 o'clock appointment when a state DCS worker calls looking for a foster family for three siblings.</p>
<p>"I've got no one," she reports somberly.</p>
<p>For the past 13 years, Stark has managed cases for The Villages, the largest private foster care and adoption agency in Indiana, which contracts with the state to find children homes. All but a few of her cases involve drugs and of those that do, about half are opioid-related.</p>
<p>The Villages is receiving 30 to 40 percent more referrals than it had been accustomed to, creating a "crisis state," as the agency's president, Sharon Pierce, puts it. Foster parent training sessions, once held monthly, are now weekly; advertising to attract new families has been ramped up. It takes at least three months to recruit, screen and train foster parents, but as soon as they get their state license, the need for help is so great they often receive an immediate call.</p>
<p>"Five or 10 minutes later, that family will have two or three children placed in their home," Pierce said.</p>
<p>The Villages used to see about 60 percent of children return to their birth families. Today it's around half that. So the agency turns to successful foster parents to adopt. The problem is that limits the family's ability to take on another foster child, creating the need for even more foster homes.</p>
<p>"So then we jump back on the treadmill," Pierce said.</p>
<p>The agency has added a few employees, but it's largely up to case managers like Stark to cope with the surging workload. She crisscrosses farm-lined stretches of Grant County, about 90 miles northeast of Indianapolis, driving beside fields of corn and soybeans in the rush to make her next appointment. The county's drug-involved foster caseload grew from nine in 2000 to 48 in 2015.</p>
<p>Stark makes her first stop at the foster home of a 5-year-old girl who answers "hot fudge sundae ice cream" when asked what happens when she meets her therapist; the child's mother is in jail. The second home is a whirl of sailing plastic cups, bouncing rubber balls and kids jumping on furniture, with six children, two of them foster placements, in perpetual motion. The foster mother, Megan Carender, hopes to adopt the children but is prepared if their stay is temporary: "No matter what, this was a place that they were loved and that they were taken care of."</p>
<p>It goes like this all day for Stark, a series of visits and a blur of calls and texts interrupted by sighs and talk of "imperfect solutions." ''We just can't keep up," she said.</p>
<p>Her third stop of the day is emblematic of the cases inundating the system. Two sisters, 9 and 10, landed in foster care because their mother got hooked on painkillers. There was no family to turn to, with their grandmother also addicted. The girls now live on a farm where sheep, cattle and hogs are raised, and they sit in the bed of a pickup, fussing over a carton of fluffy day-old chicks their foster father, Justin Lovell, picked up for them. When he notes, matter-of-factly, it won't be long before the chicks reach a size fit only for "a freezer or a frying pan," the girls' jaws drop in comical unison.</p>
<p>"You're not going to fry them!" one cries.</p>
<p>Their birth mother has already had her parental rights rescinded, and the Lovells hope to adopt. One of the girls had been in four foster homes before arriving here, the other in three. Three siblings were placed elsewhere.</p>
<p>Lovell's wife, Kristen, laments the turmoil the sisters have been through — "so many stops and starts and bumps along the way" — and that "their whole world's changing, and it's changed so many times already." Her husband simply cannot fathom how someone could put drugs before family.</p>
<p>"They had their choice," he said, "and they didn't choose their children."</p>
<p>There is no simple assessment of the impact of all of this on kids. At one extreme, there are infants born healthy who wind up in safe and loving foster homes until their birth parents get clean. At the other are children whose parents' addictions have led to their own, who find themselves hopping from foster family to foster family, or living in a group home or a strange town.</p>
<p>Fear and anxiety can amass, academic performance can plunge, feelings of abandonment can run rampant, and the ability to trust can be strained. Said Maria Cancian, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor whose research focuses on foster care and the effects on children: "When people ask me, 'Is foster care good or bad?' the first thing I say is, 'Compared to what?'"</p>
<p>Shawnee Wilson has found herself on both sides of the system.</p>
<p>Wilson's parents used, and she was 13 when child welfare officials removed her from her home. Now, at 26, she's trying to beat heroin, having already lost custody of two children and given another up at birth.</p>
<p>Her fourth child, a boy named Kingston, was born just over a year ago, and it took a month for doctors to wean him off the heroin Wilson exposed him to. He is in foster care now in Indianapolis, and Wilson is fighting to get him back.</p>
<p>Despite some relapses, she's been clean several months and is convinced she'll be able to keep it up. The clock is ticking. Federal law dictates the loss of parental rights for those whose children have been in foster care for 15 out of the previous 22 months.</p>
<p>Wilson knows how those who don't struggle with addiction view her, and said it's hard to explain what compels people to keep using even when it can cost them their children. When she's been high, she said, "I can't see the consequences, because all I want is to feel that drug. I want that numbness."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Back at juvenile court, the waiting room is brimming with people who may wait hours for their cases to be called. Babies screech. Toddlers whine. Adults emerge from courtrooms wet-eyed.</p>
<p>Moores, the plainspoken 62-year-old who leads this division, sees a familiar expression on the faces that pass through — not just parents, but case managers and attorneys and a parade of others who've seen their work overtaken by pills and powders. She saw the same blank eyes during a National Guard deployment to Afghanistan, as soldiers returned to base.</p>
<p>"They're war-weary," she said.</p>
<p>She counts herself among the battle-scarred, having presided over a court that took 1,270 children from their parents last year, more than triple a decade earlier. Cases roll in to courtrooms that once were classrooms, converted to accommodate snowballing need.</p>
<p>It is 11 p.m. on Friday now and Moores is home on her farm, clad in pajamas and awake in bed. Her phone goes off, a new crisis arrived. DCS has a boy who previously was removed from the home of his opioid-addicted mother, now needing to be taken out of the house of relatives. There are no foster families available, and the county's emergency shelters are full.</p>
<p>It won't be long before the details of the case recede from a memory crowded by a thousand others. Tonight, though, it weighs on her as she tries to drift to sleep.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sedensky, an AP national writer, reported from Indiana. Data journalist Hoyer reported from Washington.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sedensky can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/sedensky and Hoyer at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/MeghanHoyer</p> | Opioid crisis strains foster system as kids pried from homes | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1567f358520d4637a8cdf436de264e4a | 2017-12-12 | 2 |
<p>HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — A man in a New Jersey city who was hit by a truck crossing the street has been issued a summons for jaywalking.</p>
<p>The 57-year-old man was hit by a pick-up truck Tuesday evening in Hackensack. The Record <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/hackensack/2018/01/16/jaywalker-issued-summons-after-being-hit-truck-hackensack-police-charge/1038924001/" type="external">reports</a> police say he was not in a crosswalk when he was hit.</p>
<p>The man was taken to a local medical center. Police say his last address and current condition were not known.</p>
<p>Police say the pedestrian was issued a summons for jaywalking and the driver, a New Milford man, was not charged with any offense. Police say the driver was not injured.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Record (Woodland Park, N.J.), <a href="http://www.northjersey.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.northjersey.com" type="external">http://www.northjersey.com</a></p>
<p>HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — A man in a New Jersey city who was hit by a truck crossing the street has been issued a summons for jaywalking.</p>
<p>The 57-year-old man was hit by a pick-up truck Tuesday evening in Hackensack. The Record <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/hackensack/2018/01/16/jaywalker-issued-summons-after-being-hit-truck-hackensack-police-charge/1038924001/" type="external">reports</a> police say he was not in a crosswalk when he was hit.</p>
<p>The man was taken to a local medical center. Police say his last address and current condition were not known.</p>
<p>Police say the pedestrian was issued a summons for jaywalking and the driver, a New Milford man, was not charged with any offense. Police say the driver was not injured.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Record (Woodland Park, N.J.), <a href="http://www.northjersey.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.northjersey.com" type="external">http://www.northjersey.com</a></p> | Man charged with jaywalking after getting hit by truck | false | https://apnews.com/5324511c85b64399ad3437a962b26dbc | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — One play. One fall. One bad break.</p>
<p>That's all it takes to shift a series and derail a dream season.</p>
<p>Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors found out how fragile a championship chase can be in their Game 4 loss at Houston when the NBA MVP took a scary spill that nearly gave a storybook season a frightening twist.</p>
<p>Instead, the moment just serves as a reminder to both teams: nothing is over till it's over.</p>
<p>The Warriors will get another chance to close out the Rockets on Wednesday night at home and advance to the franchise's first NBA Finals in 40 years. Golden State, which leads the Western Conference finals 3-1, is eager to end the series now and avoid more opportunities for something strange to happen.</p>
<p>"We just don't want to come back to Houston," Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. "It's not going to be easy. They are here for a reason. We have to come and play with more intensity and play together and we'll win the game."</p>
<p>Eight months of work almost came crashing down for the Warriors when Curry jumped in the air as Trevor Ariza started to shoot a layup midway through the second quarter Monday night. Ariza saw him and stopped abruptly, causing Curry to tumble over him.</p>
<p>Curry's head hit the court hard and his arms bent awkwardly. He remained on the floor for several minutes, walked to the locker room looking stunned and returned in the second half after the team said he passed the league-mandated concussion tests.</p>
<p>"It could have been a lot worse," Curry said.</p>
<p>Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday, a travel day for both teams, that Curry is doing just fine — other than the bruise on his head — and should be ready to go for Game 5.</p>
<p>The Rockets could relate to losing a key player in a flash — albeit for a slightly different reason.</p>
<p>Dwight Howard, who received a flagrant 1 foul early in the third quarter after throwing an elbow at Andrew Bogut's head, could've been suspended for a game by accumulation of flagrant foul points if the NBA upgraded the call to a flagrant 2 after review.</p>
<p>NBA President of Basketball Operations Rod Thorn said the league agreed with the game officials and saw no reason to change the call. Before the league announced the ruling, Rockets coach Kevin McHale argued that Howard was retaliating after contact made by Bogut and the foul should not be upgraded.</p>
<p>"I guess the one thing we'll learn is we should be the first one to grab," McHale quipped.</p>
<p>With Howard's help, the Rockets are trying to do what no NBA team ever has: come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.</p>
<p>Houston hardly seems afraid of the moment. The Rockets became just the ninth team to rally from 3-1 down when they stunned the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round, and they believe that experience has prepared them for an even tougher task ahead.</p>
<p>"Our season comes down to winning one road game," McHale said. "That's not going to be anything new."</p>
<p>Here are some things to look for in Game 5:</p>
<p>RAINING THREES: The long ball has carried both teams all season — and perhaps now more than ever. In Game 4, the Warriors made 20 3-pointers and Houston hit 17 to set an NBA record for most 3-pointers combined in a playoff game. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, defensive adjustments each team makes on the outside.</p>
<p>GOING FOR FORTY: The MVP vs. the runner-up has lived up to the hype so far. Curry scored 40 in Golden State's 115-80 win in Game 3, and Harden followed up a poor performance with 45 points in Houston's 128-115 win in Game 4. Both teams will continue to rely on their leading men to carry them.</p>
<p>CRASHING THE BOARDS: Houston got back to playing big inside after a horrendous showing in Game 3, when the Warriors grabbed 21 more rebounds than the Rockets and highlights of Curry boxing out Howard were shown repeatedly. Golden State still won the rebounding battle in Game 4, but just 47-46.</p>
<p>EMERGING SHOOTERS: Both teams got a big lift from a player who had been struggling with his shot and are hoping the trend continues. Josh Smith scored 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting, including 3 for 4 from 3-point range, in Game 4. Klay Thompson finally found his stroke late in the first half, too. He scored 24 points and made 6 of 13 3-pointers.</p>
<p>HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE: If the Rockets want to pull off a historic comeback, they'll need to win twice on Golden State's home floor. The Warriors are 45-3 at raucous Oracle Arena, including 6-1 in the playoffs. The Rockets played well in the first two games in Oakland but lost 110-106 and 99-98. Houston last won at Oracle Arena on Dec. 13, 2013.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed to this story.</p>
<p>OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — One play. One fall. One bad break.</p>
<p>That's all it takes to shift a series and derail a dream season.</p>
<p>Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors found out how fragile a championship chase can be in their Game 4 loss at Houston when the NBA MVP took a scary spill that nearly gave a storybook season a frightening twist.</p>
<p>Instead, the moment just serves as a reminder to both teams: nothing is over till it's over.</p>
<p>The Warriors will get another chance to close out the Rockets on Wednesday night at home and advance to the franchise's first NBA Finals in 40 years. Golden State, which leads the Western Conference finals 3-1, is eager to end the series now and avoid more opportunities for something strange to happen.</p>
<p>"We just don't want to come back to Houston," Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. "It's not going to be easy. They are here for a reason. We have to come and play with more intensity and play together and we'll win the game."</p>
<p>Eight months of work almost came crashing down for the Warriors when Curry jumped in the air as Trevor Ariza started to shoot a layup midway through the second quarter Monday night. Ariza saw him and stopped abruptly, causing Curry to tumble over him.</p>
<p>Curry's head hit the court hard and his arms bent awkwardly. He remained on the floor for several minutes, walked to the locker room looking stunned and returned in the second half after the team said he passed the league-mandated concussion tests.</p>
<p>"It could have been a lot worse," Curry said.</p>
<p>Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday, a travel day for both teams, that Curry is doing just fine — other than the bruise on his head — and should be ready to go for Game 5.</p>
<p>The Rockets could relate to losing a key player in a flash — albeit for a slightly different reason.</p>
<p>Dwight Howard, who received a flagrant 1 foul early in the third quarter after throwing an elbow at Andrew Bogut's head, could've been suspended for a game by accumulation of flagrant foul points if the NBA upgraded the call to a flagrant 2 after review.</p>
<p>NBA President of Basketball Operations Rod Thorn said the league agreed with the game officials and saw no reason to change the call. Before the league announced the ruling, Rockets coach Kevin McHale argued that Howard was retaliating after contact made by Bogut and the foul should not be upgraded.</p>
<p>"I guess the one thing we'll learn is we should be the first one to grab," McHale quipped.</p>
<p>With Howard's help, the Rockets are trying to do what no NBA team ever has: come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games.</p>
<p>Houston hardly seems afraid of the moment. The Rockets became just the ninth team to rally from 3-1 down when they stunned the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round, and they believe that experience has prepared them for an even tougher task ahead.</p>
<p>"Our season comes down to winning one road game," McHale said. "That's not going to be anything new."</p>
<p>Here are some things to look for in Game 5:</p>
<p>RAINING THREES: The long ball has carried both teams all season — and perhaps now more than ever. In Game 4, the Warriors made 20 3-pointers and Houston hit 17 to set an NBA record for most 3-pointers combined in a playoff game. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, defensive adjustments each team makes on the outside.</p>
<p>GOING FOR FORTY: The MVP vs. the runner-up has lived up to the hype so far. Curry scored 40 in Golden State's 115-80 win in Game 3, and Harden followed up a poor performance with 45 points in Houston's 128-115 win in Game 4. Both teams will continue to rely on their leading men to carry them.</p>
<p>CRASHING THE BOARDS: Houston got back to playing big inside after a horrendous showing in Game 3, when the Warriors grabbed 21 more rebounds than the Rockets and highlights of Curry boxing out Howard were shown repeatedly. Golden State still won the rebounding battle in Game 4, but just 47-46.</p>
<p>EMERGING SHOOTERS: Both teams got a big lift from a player who had been struggling with his shot and are hoping the trend continues. Josh Smith scored 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting, including 3 for 4 from 3-point range, in Game 4. Klay Thompson finally found his stroke late in the first half, too. He scored 24 points and made 6 of 13 3-pointers.</p>
<p>HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE: If the Rockets want to pull off a historic comeback, they'll need to win twice on Golden State's home floor. The Warriors are 45-3 at raucous Oracle Arena, including 6-1 in the playoffs. The Rockets played well in the first two games in Oakland but lost 110-106 and 99-98. Houston last won at Oracle Arena on Dec. 13, 2013.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed to this story.</p> | Warriors try again to close out Rockets, reach NBA Finals | false | https://apnews.com/amp/aef17643c962451d8dd4b8c422fbde8e | 2015-05-26 | 2 |
<p />
<p>IMAGE SOURCE: ARISTA NETWORKS, INC.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Arista Networks Inc. (NYSE: ANET) fell 12% on Tuesday on the heels of a negative court ruling in its ongoing patent infringement case withCisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO).</p>
<p>Late Friday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency <a href="https://newsroom.cisco.com/documents/10157/0/CBP+Revokes+Finding/e372d053-2ed8-47a8-bba4-7fce26f1f4f6" type="external">revoked Opens a New Window.</a> its November ruling that <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/10/arista-networks-works-around-a-solid-quarterly-bea.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">redesigned products Opens a New Window.</a> from Arista Networks don't infringe a key patent owned by Cisco.</p>
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<p>"The revocation covers all Arista products," stated Mark Chandler, Senior VP, General Counsel and Secretary of Cisco. "This means that Arista has lost the authorization to import or continue selling its products in the U.S., or to import components to build those products."</p>
<p>Of course, Arista will almost certainly appeal the decision. But Wall Street analysts aren't sure exactly what kind of impact this may have to the business over the near term.</p>
<p>According to Barron's <a href="http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2017/01/17/arista-sinks-immediate-hit-to-profit-says-mkm-little-impact-says-barclays/" type="external">today Opens a New Window.</a>, for example, Barclays' Mark Moskowitz, for example, "[I]t is important to highlight that even with the updated CBP ruling, Arista can continue to fulfill orders through domestic manufacturing sources with products that contain work-arounds. [...] Reason being, the company did not shift its manufacturing back toward international manufacturers after the initial ruling, in an effort to hedge against an unfavorable ruling in the 945 investigation."</p>
<p>Meanwhile, MKM Partner's Michael Genovese simultaneously reduced his price target on shares from $95 to $84, citing reduced profit margin expectations even as he believes Arista will likely continue to deliver industry-leading growth.</p>
<p>It's obvious this patent battle isn't over yet. But investors will need to wait for more color on the situation when Arista releases fiscal Q4 2016 results next month, assuming the company doesn't issue an informational press release before then. In the meantime, given this negative development and caution from Wall Street, it's no surprise Arista Networks stock plunged today.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Arista Networks. The Motley Fool recommends Barclays and Cisco Systems. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Arista Networks, Inc. Stock Plunged Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/14/why-arista-networks-inc-stock-plunged-today.html | 2017-01-17 | 0 |
<p>The Cuban government announced Tuesday that it was placing at least a temporary hold on the opening of a private sector that employs more than a half-million people and has become a significant force in the island economy.</p>
<p>Authorities will suspend the issuance of permits for a range of occupations and ventures, including restaurants and renting out rooms in private homes, the government said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The suspension includes the growing field of private teachers as well as street vendors of agricultural products, dressmakers and the relatively recent profession of real estate broker. The announcement did not say when the issuing of permits would resume and said that enterprises already in operation can continue.</p>
<p>"No one assumes that the goal of these measures is to roll back the development of self-employment in Cuba," the article said. "Nothing could be farther from reality."</p>
<p>Despite that assurance, there are fears that the move could have long-term consequences.</p>
<p>"It's only a stop sign along the road, but with a discouraging message even it is temporary," said economist Omar Everleny Perez. "The country needs more hopeful messages."</p>
<p>President Raul Castro expanded an opening of the economy to private-sector employment in 200 categories of business in 2010. The government says nearly 570,000 people are employed in the enterprises, including hundreds of restaurants and guest houses.</p>
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<p>The most visible effect of the reforms was a huge increase in private rooms and guest houses, often nicer and with better services than the state-owned hotels, along with private restaurants catering to tourists around the country.</p>
<p>It helped fuel GDP growth of about 1 percent so far this year, following a dip last year, but officials have expressed concern about tax evasion and the use of raw materials from the black market in the growing segment.</p>
<p>Granma said that "putting the house in order is the highest priority of the Cuban state."</p> | Cuba stops issuing new permits for some private enterprises | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/01/cuba-stops-issuing-new-permits-for-some-private-enterprises.html | 2017-08-01 | 0 |
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<p>Syrian refugees wait in Slovenia at the blocked border with Croatia on Sunday. (Photoman29 / Shutterstock)</p>
<p>Many of us are familiar with the Emma Lazarus poem on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty:</p>
<p>“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/colossus.htm" type="external">These words</a>, written in the late 19th century, depicted the United States as a refuge for people who had crossed the Atlantic seeking a new home and a better life than they experienced in the places they left behind. The current massive humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, which has created a flood of refugees exiting Syria, obliges our country to live up to the welcome promised in that poem.</p>
<p>With George W. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, which led to the birth of Islamic State, the U.S. government played a significant role in destabilizing the Middle East. The United States and its allies—including Saudi Arabia and Turkey—have trained, financed and supplied weapons to forces fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. This has exacerbated the refugee crisis we are now witnessing.</p>
<p>History professor and author <a href="" type="internal">Juan Cole wrote</a> that the U.S. invasion of Iraq created 4 million refugees, about one-sixth of Iraq’s population. But “the U.S. took in only a few thousand Iraqi refugees after causing all that trouble,” he noted. The United States must do better with the Syrian refugees.</p>
<p>Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, famously said, “If you break it, you own it.”</p>
<p>Yet President Barack Obama pledged to lift the U.S. lamp to only <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/10/obama-wants-to-allow-10000-syrian-refugees-into-the-us.html" type="external">10,000 of the 4 million refugees</a> fleeing Syria. After fielding criticism of the United States for taking so few, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the U.S. would accept 185,000 refugees over the next two years. But this figure reflects the total number from many countries; there is no indication the administration will accept more than 10,000 from Syria.</p>
<p>The United States has a moral obligation, and perhaps a legal one, to accept many of the Syrian refugees. Evolving international norms suggest that all the countries of the world have a duty to provide refuge to those who have fled their homeland to escape persecution or war. Because the United States has 28 percent of the world’s wealth, we should take at least 28 percent of the refugees, according to <a href="http://www.ips-dc.org/what-america-owes-the-refugees-pouring-into-europe/" type="external">Phyllis Bennis</a> of the Institute for Policy Studies. That would amount to about 350,000 people. And she says the United States should immediately pay 28 percent of the United Nations’ refugee relief request, about $5.5 billion, to support nearly 6 million refugees from Syria and nearby countries through the end of 2015.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html" type="external">1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol</a> define a refugee as someone outside his or her country who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Due to the fear of persecution, he or she is unable or unwilling to remain in his or her country of origin.</p>
<p>Although many Syrian refugees may meet this definition, many others don’t because they fled to escape the violence of the armed conflict ravaging their country, not necessarily to avoid persecution.</p>
<p>Some scholars, however, think a much broader definition of “refugee” is evolving under conventional and customary international law. For example, William Thomas Worster wrote in the Berkeley Journal of International Law that a refugee could be a person who has a well-founded fear of “a threat to life, security or liberty due to events seriously disturbing public order” throughout his or her country—and because of that fear is unable or unwilling to remain or return.</p>
<p>The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has defined “temporary protection” of refugees as “a means, in situations of large-scale influx and in view of the impracticality of conducting individual refugee status determination procedures, for providing protection to groups or categories of persons who are in need of international protection.” Temporary protection “is primarily conceived as an emergency protection measure of short duration in response to large-scale influxes, guaranteeing admission to safety, protection from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-refoulement%20" type="external">non-refoulement</a> and respect for an appropriate standard of treatment.” The first time the UNHCR formally recommended the granting of temporary protection involved “persons fleeing the conflict and human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia.”</p>
<p>The principle of international law called non-refoulement is the prohibition of forced return. This means a country has a duty not to return an individual to a country where he or she will face persecution. Article 33(1) of the Refugee Convention provides, “No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Even if a country is not a party to the Refugee Convention, it is bound by the customary international law norm of non-refoulement.As reported in a recent New York Times editorial, immigrants provide many more benefits than burdens, including paying more in taxes than they claim in government benefits and doing jobs that are hard to fill. As the Congressional Budget Office concluded in 2013, gross domestic product would rise by 5.4 percent and the federal budget deficit would fall by $897 billion over the next 20 years if undocumented workers are given a path to citizenship and more work-based visas are made available to foreigners.</p>
<p>In accordance with its legal and moral duty, the United States should step up to the plate and welcome significant numbers of refugees. More than 20 former senior Democratic and Republican officials are urging the Obama administration to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees, and to contribute up to $2 billion to finance their resettlement and help international refugee efforts. The United States has already accepted 1,500 Syrian refugees since the beginning of the hostilities and has contributed more than $4 billion in humanitarian aid for them.</p>
<p>Instead of demanding regime change in Syria, the United States and its allies must stop providing weapons, training and funding to the violent opposition forces. They should enlist Russia and Iran in pursuing a diplomatic solution to this tragic conflict.</p>
<p>Up to this point, some of Syria’s immediate neighbors—Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt—have taken in 95 percent of the refugees, according to Amnesty International. Turkey has accepted nearly 2 million, followed by Lebanon, which has taken over 600,000. Jordan has taken half a million. Iraq has accepted almost 250,000. Egypt has accepted more than 130,000.</p>
<p>Germany agreed to take 800,000 refugees. Britain will take in 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, at the rate of 4,000 per year. Canada will take 10,000; Australia will take 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees; Venezuela will take 20,000.</p>
<p>But Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait—the wealthiest nations in the region—have taken none of the refugees. Likewise, Iran and Russia, which support the Assad government, have refused permanent residency or asylum to the refugees.</p>
<p>Some of the Syrian refugees are Palestinians who first became refugees after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus" type="external">1947-48 Nakba</a>, when 80 percent of historic Palestine was ethnically cleansed to create Israel. They are “double refugees.” But Israel has refused to take in any Syrian refugees.</p>
<p>Israel has apparently forgotten that in 1939, 937 Jewish refugees seeking to escape the Nazis made the perilous ocean voyage on the <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html" type="external">SS St. Louis</a>, but the United States turned them away. Forced to return to Europe, hundreds of them were then killed by Hitler’s forces. The nations of the world, and particularly the United States, must ensure the current refugees obtain the shelter to which they are entitled.</p> | The U.S. Has a Duty to the ‘Tempest-Tost’ Syrians | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/the-u-s-has-a-duty-to-the-tempest-tost-syrians/ | 2015-09-23 | 4 |
<p>Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, announced late Sunday night following the second presidential debate out of three&#160;that she may leave the Republican’s presidential campaign before Election Day.</p>
<p>MSNBC’s Chris Matthews directly asked Conway if she was “with the campaign until the bitter end” after a dynamic but still failing Sunday night debate performance on the part of her boss.</p>
<p>Conway didn’t say yes, rather giving a “yes, but” answer.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/2016-presidential-debate-kellyanne-conway-unless-229506?lo=ap_a2" type="external">Politico</a> reports:</p>
<p>‘“I’m with the campaign till the bitter end unless – “ Conway said, before raising her chin, shrugging her shoulders forward and then leaning backward.’</p>
<p>Matthews, of course, was intrigued by the ambiguity in Conway’s answer, and pressed her over what was at the end of her unfinished sentence.</p>
<p>He asked, while Conway oddly grinned, if she was “afraid of more shoes dropping.”</p>
<p>She pulled a classic Trump move and said she had never said any such thing, asserting, “I didn’t say that. No, no, no. I’ve made a commitment. And I believe that he will be a much better president.”</p>
<p>Was there ever any question that Conway thought that Trump would make a better president than Clinton?</p>
<p>What’s going on here is that the effort to put a Republican in the White House is in&#160;intense disarray. The tensions boiling under the surface blew up after tapes were leaked last Friday featuring Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.</p>
<p>Following the tapes leaking, a number of significant Republicans pulled their support for Trump’s candidacy, the RNC diverted funds from the Trump campaign to down ballot Republican campaigns, and even Trump himself became distanced from his running mate, Mike Pence, who said that he could not defend the comments made by Trump in the tapes.</p>
<p>Conway, as campaign manager, often bears the brunt of public criticism over the often incomprehensibly bigoted behavior of her presidential candidate and boss.</p>
<p>Under the same conditions,&#160;Trump has already been through two campaign managers this campaign season, having dumped his first, Corey Lewandowski, for ambiguous reasons after he physically assaulted a female reporter. Trump ditched his second campaign manager, Paul Manafort, after Manafort was revealed to have deeply-set ties to Russian political interests.</p>
<p>Conway eventually offered an explanation for her trailing off sentence, saying, “The ‘unless’ is simple. It’s unless someone in my household needs me or unless something changes in my own life.”</p>
<p>She had already left the live broadcast area and returned to offer her answer – an answer which took a curious several minutes for her to come up with, as though she had to think of something which wouldn’t implicate her boss.</p>
<p>Watch video of Conway’s initial interchange with Matthews below.</p>
<p />
<p>Featured Image from&#160; <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/612710382" type="external">Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images</a>.</p> | BREAKING: Trump Campaign Manager Caught On Mic Preparing To Resign (DETAILS) | true | http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/10/10/breaking-trump-campaign-manager-caught-on-mic-preparing-to-resign-details/ | 2016-10-10 | 4 |
<p>As President Barack Obama returns to Africa this week, his major initiative to help the continent double access to electricity is in jeopardy, undermined by Congress.</p>
<p>Of the $7 billion that Obama set aside for Power Africa, $5 billion fell under the auspices of the now-defunct Export-Import Bank, which guarantees loans to foreign companies buying U.S.-made products. Just $132 million in transactions had been approved before the bank's charter expired last month, and now it cannot approve new ones.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The bank, denounced by conservative critics as corporate welfare, said it had several billion dollars of Power Africa projects in the pipeline. But none can move ahead unless lawmakers reauthorize the bank.</p>
<p>For American companies, that could mean losing out to competitors such as China. Beijing is investing heavily in Africa and would be happy to see Chinese companies get the contracts to build and equip power plants in Africa.</p>
<p>Andy Herscowitz, Power Africa's coordinator, said companies with access to financing help from their governments have a competitive advantage.</p>
<p>"There are plenty of investors interested in investing in Africa, and a lot of great ideas, but you've got to get to bankability," Herscowitz said in an interview.</p>
<p>For Obama, the snag illustrates how Power Africa, slow to get off the ground, may fall far short of his lofty ambitions. Two years after the president announced the program during a visit to South Africa, the program has yet to add any megawatts of electricity to Africa's overburdened, underdeveloped grid.</p>
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<p>Obama may now find it harder to persuade African leaders that he has maximized his opportunity as America's first black president to make African development a U.S. priority. Although this week's trip to Kenya and Ethiopia will be Obama's third to sub-Saharan Africa as president, his global agenda has focused chiefly on Asia and the Middle East.</p>
<p>Building power plants takes time, and Power Africa officials say it's more instructive to look at deals closed rather than the number of power plants already built. In an annual report for Power Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development said last July that 2,792 megawatts of electricity will be generated as a result of deals that have closed; that's roughly one-a quarter of Obama's goal.</p>
<p>USAID also said Power Africa had leveraged more than $18 billion in private sector financing. It is not clear how much of that resulted directly from U.S. efforts.</p>
<p>Power Africa declined to provide updated figures on how many megawatts will be created by deals that have closed. Officials said they are on track to meet Obama's goal.</p>
<p>Yet chronic power shortages and rolling blackouts continue to stymie development and make life harder for hundreds of millions of Africans. The president's objective is to expand access to power to 20 million households and businesses through new gas, oil, solar, wind and other power plants.</p>
<p>Vera Songwe, the West and Central Africa regional director for the World Bank Group's International Finance Corp., said Obama's program does not set out to fund all the continent's energy needs, but rather spur the private sector's interest in taking on that challenge.</p>
<p>"Many of these U.S. companies are a bit shy about coming onto the continent. With Power Africa, there is a concerted effort by all the U.S. agencies to try to accompany U.S. businesses into Africa," said Songwe, also a Brookings Institution scholar.</p>
<p>The Export-Import Bank was an important part of that effort. Yet on June 30, the bank lapsed for the first time in its 81-year history.</p>
<p>"Orders are on hold, business is in danger, potential expansions will stall, fewer employees will be hired if we do not get this done," Obama said Wednesday, joined by executives of businesses aided by the bank.</p>
<p>In the Senate, the bank's supporters hope to add reauthorization to a must-pass highway bill. The Senate voted 62-36 on Tuesday to take up the bill, setting it up for likely passage next week.</p>
<p>But the highway legislation may run into trouble. The House has passed its own, shorter highway bill that leaves out the Export-Import Bank, and House Republicans oppose the Senate bill.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP</p> | Obama's big program to help double Africa's access to electricity has been stymied by Congress | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/23/obama-big-program-to-help-double-africa-access-to-electricity-has-been-stymied.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Victor Mora turns 53 in March, the day after the White House is due to decide whether to renew temporary protected status for Salvadorans, an immigration classification that enables them to legally live and work in the United States.</p>
<p>All he wants for his birthday is a work permit.</p>
<p>It is uncertain whether he will be eligible for one, as the Trump administration is reviewing countries in the program, which protects undocumented immigrants from nations where their lives could be in danger if they were forced to return. It announced earlier this week that it would not renew temporary protected status, or TPS, for Nicaraguans and deferred a decision on Hondurans residing in the United States.</p>
<p>By March 9, the administration must decide whether to renew TPS for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans, including Mora.</p>
<p>Potential impact in Las Vegas</p>
<p>A decision against renewal could deal a blow to the Las Vegas gaming and tourism industries, which employ a large percentage of local TPS holders, including many Salvadorans, immigration advocates say.</p>
<p>“We have members, they’ve been working for 20 years in there,” said Geocanda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer for Culinary Local 226, which represents 57,000 Nevada workers.</p>
<p>Mora is one of those workers. With work authorization papers obtained through his TPS status, Mora makes a living as a utility porter at the <a href="http://www.hotels.vegas/Las-Vegas-Hotels/Bellagio-Hotel-And-Casino" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.hotels.vegas/Las-Vegas-Hotels/Bellagio-Hotel-And-Casino" type="external">Bellagio,</a> cleaning floors and stripping wax.</p>
<p>“It’s helped me raise my kids,” said Mora, who said he fled El Salvador at 25 at the tail-end of the country’s civil war. A poster of the <a href="http://www.hotels.vegas/Las-Vegas-Hotels/Bellagio-Hotel-And-Casino" type="external">Bellagio,</a> lit after dark with its famous cascading fountains, hangs on Mora’s living room wall out of appreciation for the business that puts food on his table.</p>
<p>TPS is granted to people who resided in the United States at the time their country was deemed unsafe for reentry due to temporary conditions like armed conflict, an environmental disaster or an epidemic. TPS gives the applicant work authorization and protection from deportation, but it is not a route to citizenship.</p>
<p>An estimated 5,700 TPS holders in Nevada come from El Salvador, according to the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Another 600 come from Honduras and Haiti, which is also listed under the program but is under review.</p>
<p>Nearly one-third of Salvadorans residing in Nevada work in the accommodation and food service industry, the think tank estimates.</p>
<p />
<p>Critics say temporary protected status was meant to be just that: temporary. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke shortly before her decision to end TPS for Nicaraguans, stating that conditions had improved enough in Central America and Haiti to rescind protection.</p>
<p>Another criticism: those granted protective status weren’t in their home countries at the time of an event, anyway.</p>
<p>“I think that one of the criticisms that I hear a lot is that people who benefit from TPS somestimes are not directly impacted by certain country conditions,” said Gabrielle Jones, an immigration attorney for the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.</p>
<p>Livelihood threatened</p>
<p>Still, deporting many TPS holders would mean uprooting lives they’ve built in the United States over decades. Mora, who moved here in 1992, owns land in Arizona and a house in North Las Vegas. He has three children, ages 17, 19 and 20, all born in the United States, and he’s been a single dad for the last 12 years.</p>
<p>Without status, Mora’s days of legal work would end.</p>
<p>“Under the shadows, how am I going to be able to work?” Mora said.</p>
<p>But advocates say it’s unlikely people like Mora will pack up and willingly leave.</p>
<p>“One of the reasons why we bought land and homes here is because we want to stay here,” Mora said.</p>
<p>He wore a gray Adidas T-shirt on a recent Tuesday evening after work, an FC Barcelona soccer flag hanging behind his living room couch. Though he speaks little English — he quit school after second grade to work for his family in El Salvador — he considers himself American.</p>
<p>After all, he has spent more time here than in his birth country.</p>
<p>“I think most people will stay here undocumented,” Jones said. “There’s nothing for them to go back to.”</p>
<p>Contact Jessie Bekker at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 702-380-4563. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/jessiebekks" type="external">@jessiebekks</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>The 10 TPS countries (Holders, Expiration Date)</p>
<p>Haiti: 46,000; Jan. 22, 2018</p>
<p>El Salvador: 195,000; March 9, 2018</p>
<p>Syria: 8,300; March 31, 2018</p>
<p>Nepal: 8,950; June 24, 2018</p>
<p>Honduras: 57,000; July 5, 2018</p>
<p>Yemen: 1,000; Sept. 3, 2018</p>
<p>Somalia: 250; Sept. 17, 2018</p>
<p>Sudan: 1,040; Nov. 2, 2018</p>
<p>Nicaragua: 2,550; Jan. 5, 2019</p>
<p>South Sudan: 70+; May 2, 2019</p>
<p>Source: Pew Research Center</p>
<p /> | Las Vegas tourism workers may lose protected immigration status | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas-tourism-workers-may-lose-protected-immigration-status/ | 2017-11-12 | 1 |
<p>There were wild celebrations in Egypt on Sunday as the country qualified for its first FIFA World Cup finals since 1990.</p>
<p>Liverpool forward Mo Salah struck an injury-time penalty, his second goal of the game, to give the team a 2-1 win over Congo and secure an unassailable position at the top of their African qualifying group with one game to spare. &#160;</p>
<p>Thousands took to the streets of the capital Cairo and across the country to celebrate a long-awaited return to world football’s showpiece event in Russia next summer. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Nigeria also booked their place in the finals, sealing qualification courtesy of a 1-0 win against Zambia. The 21-year-old Arsenal striker Alex Iwobi – nephew of Nigerian legend Jay-Jay Okocha – scored the winning goal to send the Super Eagles to their sixth appearance at the World Cup finals. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>The final round of African qualifying games takes place on November 6, with Tunisia, Senegal and Morocco leading their respective groups going into the final round.&#160;</p>
<p>In the North, Central American and Caribbean region (CONCACAF), Costa Rica clinched their spot in Russia thanks to a last–gasp goal from Kendall Waston, which earned them a 1-1 draw against Honduras on Saturday.</p>
<p>That guaranteed the team one of the three automatic CONCACAF qualification spots, behind the already-qualified Mexico, and sent the team to their third successive World Cup finals. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>The team celebrated by Real Madrid ‘keeper Keylor Navas shaving the head of coach Oscar ‘Macho’ Ramirez. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>The remaining qualifiers in the region take place on October 10, with the USA favorites to secure the final automatic spot, with Panama and Honduras likely to fight it out for the right to play the winner of the Australia versus Syria playoff, the second leg of which will be played on the same day in Sydney. That tie is finely poised at 1-1, after the Syrians’ late equalizer in the first leg in Malaysia last week. &#160;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/405793-syria-australia-world-cup-qualifying/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;Syria fight back against Australia to keep World Cup dream alive</a></p>
<p>In Europe, Poland booked their spot in Russia when they beat Montenegro 4-2 in Warsaw on Sunday.</p>
<p>Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski was again on target, scoring his 16th qualifying goal to send his country to their first finals since 2006.</p>
<p>One Poland fan clearly appreciated Lewandowski’s efforts, running onto the pitch to kiss the striker’s boot.</p>
<p>Other European teams will look to book their places in Russia on Monday and Tuesday night when the final round of group-stage qualifying games take place.</p>
<p>Serbia are well-placed to seal automatic qualification in their group, while Euro 2016 heroes Iceland can also claim their automatic spot with victory over Kosovo. &#160;</p>
<p>The Netherlands are all but out of the competition, and require a huge win against Sweden to secure a playoff spot in their group, with France favorites to progress as group winners. &#160;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/405936-luzhniki-stadium-renovation-moscow/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;Luzhniki – the $450mn stage for a new Russian sporting era</a></p>
<p>Switzerland travel to Portugal in a mouth-watering clash on Tuesday to determine who claims top spot in their group and who need to negotiate the playoffs.</p>
<p>The Swiss go into the game with a perfect qualifying record, but defeat to Portugal would give Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. top spot in the group on goal difference.</p>
<p>Belgium, Germany, Spain and England have already qualified from Europe.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/405876-messi-argentina-world-cup-qualify/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;Messi to miss out? Argentina’s World Cup hopes in balance after draw with Peru</a></p>
<p>South America is set for an intense qualification denouement on Tuesday, as an incredibly tight group sees Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Paraguay all vie for the remaining three automatic qualification spots behind already-qualified Brazil. The fifth-placed team will have to negotiate a playoff against New Zealand.</p> | Thousands celebrate on streets of Cairo as Egypt qualify for Russia 2018 World Cup (VIDEO) | false | https://newsline.com/thousands-celebrate-on-streets-of-cairo-as-egypt-qualify-for-russia-2018-world-cup-video/ | 2017-10-09 | 1 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>RUSH: This is Howard in Brandon, Florida.&#160; Great to have you on the EIB Network.</p>
<p>CALLER:&#160; Hi, Rush.&#160; How are you doing?&#160;</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; Very well, sir. Thank you.</p>
<p>CALLER:&#160; It’s an honor to talk to you.</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; Thank you again.</p>
<p>CALLER:&#160; I would just like to real quick say hello to my two sons.&#160; One is a uniformed police officer in Cobb County, Georgia.&#160; The other one is a detective in Hillsboro County, Georgia.&#160; Boys, proud of you.&#160; Rush, first off, I’ve got a bumper sticker for you: “Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire! Never Hillary.”</p>
<p>RUSH: (laughing) “Pantsuit on fire.” (laughing) I like, “She puts her pantsuit on one leg at a time like all the other guys.”</p>
<p>CALLER: That’s right. That’s right. Pants on fire, Rush.&#160; Pants on fire.&#160; In this case, it’s a pantsuit on fire.&#160;</p>
<p>RUSH: Right. Right.</p>
<p>CALLER: As a Vietnam veteran, Navy veteran, I wanted to relate to you what my thoughts are on this $400 million.</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; Hang on, because I’ve got to break here in five seconds, and I don’t want to try to have you say it in that limited amount of time. &#160;</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: This is Howard in Braden, Florida.&#160; You’ve got — is it Braden or Bradenton?&#160;</p>
<p>CALLER:&#160; Brandon, Rush, just outside of Tampa.</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; Oh, Brandon.</p>
<p>CALLER: Yes, sir.</p>
<p>RUSH: Just outside of what?&#160;</p>
<p>CALLER:&#160; Just outside of Tampa.</p>
<p>RUSH: “Just outside of Tampa.” Okay. Cool.&#160; So you have a theory about the $400 million ransom.</p>
<p>CALLER:&#160; The point being that Iran really owes us millions of dollars for the damage they did by providing the engineering, design and materials of all the IEDs and shaped charges they provided to the bad guys in Iraq over the years.&#160; Why did we not levy a claim against all this money, $400 million, and have that money set aside and put in an account for the Veterans Administration to pay for all the medical care that our veterans are going to need over the next 30 or 40 years, as a result of all these injuries that were caused by the material, design and information that Iran provided to the bad guys in Iraq?&#160; It’s just amazing to me that you’ve got a government that is known as one of the worst terrorist providers in this world, that we would provide them $400 million instead of setting aside that $400 million for the Veterans Administration to provide for assistance to all the vets that either were wounded — or families of dependents — that will be out there for the next 30 or 40 years.</p>
<p>RUSH:&#160; I don’t want to make you feel worse, but it’s not $400 million.&#160; It’s $1.7 billion, and $400 million is just a part of it.&#160; In addition to that, there’s $150 billion of Iranian assets that were frozen when we slapped sanctions on them for violating agreed-to terms in their nuclear plans, and that’s all been unfrozen.&#160; So we have seen to it that one of the world’s largest state sponsors of terrorisms has been able to reacquire $150 billion, which they openly say that they would use some of it for terrorist activity.</p>
<p>And which John Kerry, our secretary of state (who served in Vietnam), has acknowledged that they will probably use some of it to modernize or equip or whatever they do to sponsor terrorism.&#160; Now, the idea… You had a great idea here that we should be extracting payments for the damage they’ve done.&#160; But we’re doing the exact opposite.&#160; And a lot of people are asking, “What is it the Iranians have on Obama?”&#160; It makes so little sense that that’s what people start asking.&#160; “Why in the world…?</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>“Of all the nations in the world, why in the world would you help — in every way you can — this nation become a nuclear power in that part of the world, where we have one and really only one ally, which is Israel?&#160; Why?”&#160; And since there aren’t any commonsense answers that people can understand, they start trying to find other explanations.&#160; This is not by any means the first example.&#160; There are countless examples of the Obama administration being friendly with, making overtures to Iran.</p>
<p>And in the middle of it, the Iranians never moderate.&#160; We’re told, “There are moderates that we’re dealing with, and that’s why we can do it! There are moderates springing up, not the mullahs and not the ayatollahs.”&#160; But that isn’t true.&#160; Rouhani isn’t a moderate.&#160; He’s not really a leader.&#160; The supreme leader is the grand ayatollah.&#160; In this case, it’s the Ayatollah Khamenei.&#160; Have you ever wondered why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not there?&#160;</p>
<p>It’s that for one reason or another the Ayatollah Khamenei wanted to send him back to painting graffiti on the walls.&#160; They put Rouhani in there because he makes a better impression, less imposing, comes across as more moderate.&#160; Ahmadinejad was out there promising everybody what he was going to do: Wipe us off the map and Israel off the map — and, by the way, while we’re at it we want to revive Germany!&#160; The Holocaust never happened.&#160;</p>
<p>So they had to get rid of him because he didn’t facilitate their desire to look less threatening.&#160; So this relationship that our administration has with Iran — not just on the surface, but when you start drilling down deep — still doesn’t make any sense.&#160; Now we pay this ransom and the regime goes out of its way to say, “No, no, no, no, no, it’s not a ransom!”&#160; The Iranians have released video! They’re bragging about it.</p>
<p>They released video and a still shot of the pallet containing the $400 million.&#160; Remember, though, the big story is none of that.&#160; The big story today is how Donald Trump made a mistake.&#160; “He said that he saw the video of the money arriving, and there is no video,” the Drive-Bys say.&#160; That remains the big story. &#160;</p> | What Does Iran Have on Obama? | true | http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/08/05/what_does_iran_have_on_obama | 2016-08-05 | 0 |
<p>It was free-market economist Joseph Schumpeter who coined the phrase, “creative destruction.” He meant that a dynamic economy doesn’t stand still. That cars replace buggies; trucks replace&#160;conestoga wagons; computers replace typewriters; smartphones replace line phones. A dynamic society is different from a stagnant society, such as under socialism, or the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/14/venezuela-inflation-price-controls-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html" type="external">economic edicts</a> of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.</p>
<p>That’s the context of <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-brown-toyota-capitalism-20140502,0,898000.story?track=rss#axzz30adebIGh" type="external">Gov. Jerry Brown quoting Schumpeter</a>about the loss of Toyota’s HQ to Texas. And it’s one thing I like about the governor. He comes up with these references. It’s doubtful Texas Gov. Rick Perry ever heard of Schumpeter. But who got the jobs?</p>
<p>Brown&#160;talked about “the creative destruction of capitalism…. I put the emphasis on creative. Change is inevitable. There’s a fellow named Schumpeter who talked about the creative destruction of capitalism….&#160;If you’re totally static, you’re a dead economy.&#160;Things are always moving.”</p>
<p>Right. And one thing that “moves” is capital, from areas of too much government to areas with more reasonable government. It’s South Vietnamese fleeing before the invading North Vietnamese tanks in 1975, then taking to boats to America. There a couple hundred thousand Vietnamese in California right now who can tell you about that. Human capital&#160;was “destroyed” in Vietnam, so it moved here.</p>
<p>With <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm" type="external">AB 32</a>, <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/sb375/sb375.htm" type="external">SB 375</a> and <a href="" type="internal">thousands&#160;of other</a> absurd anti-business laws, California has been repelling businesses, which “are always moving” to Texas and other states, or to other countries, to find freedom.</p>
<p>“We do have Tesla,” Brown&#160;said. “We have an electric bus company from China. Certainly we would like more. But not every state can do everything. That’s why we have 50 states.”</p>
<p>But Tesla exists only because of <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/tesla-motors-free-ride-elon-musk-government-subsidies" type="external">massive state and federal subsidies</a>. The <a href="http://www.presstelegram.com/environment-and-nature/20140428/byd-motors-delivers-its-first-two-california-built-electric-buses-to-antelope-valley-transit" type="external">BYD Motors electric buses</a>were bought by the&#160;Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a government monopoly. If L.A. had a private-sector bus system, as do many cities around the world such as the&#160; <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=6HGBAgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT384&amp;lpg=PT384&amp;dq=manila+jitneys&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=S4be0Cdy7C&amp;sig=yyj01B7FpUqcE7xwKtMehLiQHXI&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=YAJlU-26IdCHogSM7oHoBw&amp;ved=0CFQQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&amp;q=manila%20jitneys&amp;f=false" type="external">jitneys in Manila</a>, what’s called “paratransit,” would the private owners buy these electric buses? No way.</p>
<p>“Creative destruction” replaces&#160;the inefficient&#160;with&#160;the efficient. That’s why California jobs are being creatively destroyed and replaced with Texas jobs.</p> | Gov. Brown excuses Toyota move with Schumpeter | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/05/03/gov-brown-excuses-toyota-move-with-schumpeter/ | 2018-05-20 | 3 |
<p>Yes, I would think they would want to hush this up and make it go away quietly. Hastert's predilections, while not exactly an open secret in D.C., were rumored for years. There's a character clearly based on Hastert in Sibel Edmund's "The Lone Gladio", and let's just say her version of the character's activities in the roman à clef novel are sickening. I don't think the details will ever come out because some government involvement seems likely. But at least he's going to jail, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/15/dennis-hastert-ex-house-speaker-is-expected-to-enter-guilty-plea/" type="external">which is better than nothing:</a></p>
<p>Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert has agreed to a tentative deal with prosecutors to resolve charges that he violated banking laws to cover up hush money payments related to long-buried misdeeds, his lawyer told a federal judge Thursday.</p>
<p>The deal could mean that details of those past misdeeds will never be aired in open court.</p>
<p>Several people familiar with the case have said that the payoffs, to total $3.5 million, were to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct dating to Hastert's days as a teacher and wrestling coach in Illinois.</p>
<p>[...] Those two counts each carry maximum penalties of up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Under a plea deal, Hastert can expect a much more lenient sentence.</p> | In Plea Agreement, Former Speaker Dennis Hastert Will Go To Jail | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/10/plea-agreement-dennis-hastert-will-go-jail | 2015-10-15 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A former City University of New York Baruch College basketball coach and athletic department official has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $700,000 from the Manhattan school.</p>
<p>New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott announced the guilty plea by 43-year-old Machli Joseph, of Elizabeth, New Jersey on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Leahy Scott says Joseph embezzled the money between 2010 and 2016 by renting school athletic facilities to outside parties and keeping the proceeds. She says the funds were spent on personal expenses, including renovations to his New Jersey home.</p>
<p>Joseph faces up to 10 years in prison when he's sentenced in Manhattan federal court on April 17.</p>
<p>Information on his lawyer wasn't immediately available.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A former City University of New York Baruch College basketball coach and athletic department official has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $700,000 from the Manhattan school.</p>
<p>New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott announced the guilty plea by 43-year-old Machli Joseph, of Elizabeth, New Jersey on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Leahy Scott says Joseph embezzled the money between 2010 and 2016 by renting school athletic facilities to outside parties and keeping the proceeds. She says the funds were spent on personal expenses, including renovations to his New Jersey home.</p>
<p>Joseph faces up to 10 years in prison when he's sentenced in Manhattan federal court on April 17.</p>
<p>Information on his lawyer wasn't immediately available.</p> | Former Baruch basketball coach pleads guilty to embezzlement | false | https://apnews.com/amp/fdf73516f37f475ca7b52c6acc4a9726 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Fitbit.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Fitness wearables company Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) reported its third-quarter results after the market closed on Nov. 2. While Fitbit's results matched its previous guidance, the company's disappointing outlook for the holiday season forced it to cut its full-year guidance. Just 2%-5% revenue growth is expected during the fourth quarter, a dramatic slowdown to say the least. Here's what investors need to know about Fitbit's third-quarter results.</p>
<p>YOY = year over year. Data source: Fitbit Q3 2016 earnings report.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Fitbit's third quarter was in line with its guidance, but the company's outlook for the holiday season was disappointing.</p>
<p>Fitbit lowered its guidance for the full year, and its guidance for the fourth quarter calls for almost no growth at all.</p>
<p>Fitbit CEO James Park pointed to the positive reception for the company's new products but admitted that growth wasn't as fast as anticipated:</p>
<p>Fitbit has ramped up spending dramatically in recent quarters in an effort to drive growth. But with guidance for the fourth quarter calling for nearly flat revenue compared with the fourth quarter of last year, even with a slate of new products, investors have every reason to be concerned.</p>
<p>With growth set to virtually disappear this holiday season, justifying its heavy spending and the subsequent earnings declines will become more difficult going forward. Fitbit may have some tricks up its sleeve in the form of new products for 2017, but new products don't seem to be helping this holiday season.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Fitbit. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Holidays Won't Be Happy for Fitbit | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/03/holidays-wont-be-happy-for-fitbit.html | 2016-11-03 | 0 |
<p>On one hand, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/magazine/the-passion-of-nicki-minaj.html?_r=0" type="external">this new New York Times Magazine profile of Nicki Minaj</a> — written by Vanessa Grigoriadis, a veteran journalist with a long history of profiling female pop stars — is fantastic. Minaj is an engaging character, a woman with strong opinions who rarely holds back, unless she really doesn’t feel it’s worth her time, and so the piece has its share of gems. On the other hand, the interview is also a frustrating one, as Grigoriadis doesn’t seem as interested in her subject as she does the “drama” surrounding her — specifically between pal Drake and fiance Meek Mill, as well as Minaj’s own tiffs with Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. And it’s that word, “drama,” that eventually frustrates Minaj to the point that she kicks Grigoriadis out of her hotel room, ending their interview.</p>
<p>But first! Let’s pluck one of those aforementioned gems from the wreckage, shall we? In what seems like the biggest missed opportunity, Minaj was asked about her “feud” with Miley Cyrus, which began when Cyrus, also speaking to the Times, <a href="" type="internal">criticized Minaj</a> for being “angry” about “Anaconda” not being nominated for Video of the Year at the VMAs. Minaj, as you’ll recall, spoke out post-snub, specifically about how the music industry routinely ignores women of color in order to celebrate thin, white women (like Taylor Swift, <a href="" type="internal">who also came for Nicki</a>, got smacked down and later apologized). This all culminated in an all-too-real LIVE confrontation on stage at the VMAs, with Minaj locking eyes with Cyrus and asking her, “Miley, what’s good?” Addressing Cyrus, Minaj explained to Grigoriadis:</p>
<p>‘‘The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls. You’re in videos with black men, and you’re bringing out black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.’’</p>
<p>So! Here is where Grigoriadis missed a valuable opportunity to talk to Minaj about those issues! Those issues that Miley Cyrus was not interested in, but Minaj clearly is! Those issues that, if you’re a person who is actually interested in Nicki Minaj, you should WANT to know about. And yet Grigoriadis doesn’t pursue the subject further, moving on to discuss Minaj’s fondness for spandex, spending the next six paragraphs assessing her looks and physical presentation. Sigh.</p>
<p>Another missed opportunity comes in the last graf of that section. Grigoriadis writes that Minaj “turns serious again” and then says, “Back in the day, in hip-hop, the thick girl was glorified. Now the rappers are dating skinny white women. So it’s almost like, ‘Wait a minute, who’s going to tell the thick black girls that they’re sexy and fly, too?'” Instead of engaging with her futher on the subject, Grigoriadis again moves on, this time to asking her about how Lady Gaga influenced her look. Minaj is not amused, staring at Grigoriadis in such a way that “my hair curled,” telling her, “I don’t even want to discuss that. That’s so old to me.”</p>
<p>The profile goes on to touch upon some meatier territory, like Minaj’s childhood, her relationship with her dad and her early days in hip-hop. There’s some awkwardness over Minaj’s refusal to confirm or deny certain details of those years, and then Grigoriadis is back to asking about recent headlines – namely, boyfriend/fiance Meek Mill’s <a href="" type="internal">embarrassing beef</a> with Minaj’s longtime pal, Drake. Nicki is over it:</p>
<p>‘‘They’re men, grown-ass men,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s between them.’’ How does it make you feel, I ask? ‘‘I hate it,’’ she said. ‘‘It doesn’t make me feel good. You don’t ever want to choose sides between people you love. It’s ridiculous. I just want it to be over.’’</p>
<p>Grigoriadis, unfortunately, is not quite done, and begins to ask, ‘‘Is there a part of you that thrives on drama, or is it no, just pain and unpleasantness—’’ before Nicki cuts her off. The reporter instantly regret going there, spending a paragraph trying to explain to readers what she realllllly meant by drama (HBO series drama! Not, like, “Real Housewives” style drama! She swears!). But it’s too late for Nicki at least:</p>
<p>‘‘That’s disrespectful,’’ Minaj said, drawing herself up in the chair. ‘‘Why would a grown-ass woman thrive off drama?’’</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>‘‘What do the four men you just named have to do with me thriving off drama?’’ she asked. ‘‘Why would you even say that? That’s so peculiar. Four grown-ass men are having issues between themselves, and you’re asking me do I thrive off drama?’’</p>
<p>She pointed my way, her extended arm all I could see other than the diamonds glinting in her ears. This wasn’t over yet. ‘‘That’s the typical thing that women do. What did you putting me down right there do for you?’’ she asked. ‘‘Women blame women for things that have nothing to do with them. I really want to know why — as a matter of fact, I don’t. Can we move on, do you have anything else to ask?’’ she continued. ‘‘To put down a woman for something that men do, as if they’re children and I’m responsible, has nothing to do with you asking stupid questions, because you know that’s not just a stupid question. That’s a premeditated thing you just did.’’ She called me ‘‘rude’’ and ‘‘a troublemaker,’’ said ‘‘Do not speak to me like I’m stupid or beneath you in any way’’ and, at last, declared, ‘‘I don’t care to speak to you anymore.’’</p>
<p>With that, Grigoriadis was sent down to the lobby, and her piece ends with a paragraph-long mea culpa, acknowledging that Minaj was right to be upset. But honestly, my read on the situation is that this final moment was really just the straw that broke the camel’s back; that Minaj realized that “drama” was really all Grigoriadis was interested in, and it shows in what the writer chose to highlight in her questions and her final piece. Minaj may have gotten the last word, but it’s seriously unfortunate that Grigoriadis wasted so many of hers.</p>
<p>[ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/magazine/the-passion-of-nicki-minaj.html?_r=0" type="external">NY Times</a>]</p> | Nicki Minaj Has More Words For Miley Cyrus & Kicks NY Times Interviewer To The Curb | true | http://thefrisky.com/2015-10-07/nicki-minaj-has-more-words-for-miley-cyrus-kicks-ny-times-interviewer-to-the-curb/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dnicki-minaj | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>In an August 1996 <a href="http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/federal/doma/1996/clinton.letter-08.07.96" type="external">letter</a>, President Bill Clinton wrote that raising the issue of gay marriage was “divisive and unnecessary.” He was right about the first part, but according to a decision by a federal appeals court in Boston this week, he was <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/31/court-rules-defense-marriage-unconstitutional" type="external">mistaken</a> about the second.</p>
<p>DOMA, or the Defense of Marriage Act, has been the curse of the gay community since Clinton signed it into law Sept. 21 of the same year. It codified what its congressional sponsors <a href="http://www.lectlaw.com/files/leg23.htm" type="external">said</a> had existed in practice for more than 200 years: “that a marriage is the legal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife, and a spouse is a husband or wife of the opposite sex.”</p>
<p>The law’s justification consisted of the same reasoning that conservatives used while opposing equal rights for African-Americans in the 1960s. “If some state wishes to recognize same-sex marriage,” Republican Sen. Don Nickles <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/09/us/congressional-bills-withhold-sanction-of-same-sex-unions.html?" type="external">said</a> while introducing the bill, “they can do so.” With those words and others like it, the issue of whether homosexual couples deserved the same legal rights as straight ones — including tax breaks and medical benefits — was transformed into the matter of states defending their right to determine how best to govern themselves independently of the federal government. “Big government” became the bogeyman carted out of the national closet to scare voters into equating the recognition of gay rights with trading the Constitution for a charter from King George.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the spirit of decency that prevailed in the Democratic Congress of the early ’60s was but a faint, forgotten ghost in those same halls in the conservative ’90s. And this time, the minorities in question had no defender in their president; Clinton was <a href="http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=6613" type="external">eager</a> to prevent same-sex marriage from becoming a campaign issue months before his hoped-for re-election.</p>
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<p>Fortunately however, the long arc of the moral universe occasionally bends toward justice. On Thursday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the section of DOMA requiring the federal government to deny same-sex couples the legal benefits afforded to straight spouses unconstitutional. A step forward, to be sure, but still a judgment that falls short of denying states the power to discriminate against gay couples who wish to be married.</p>
<p>The appeals court doesn’t have the last call. The issue will move to the conservative, Catholic dominated Supreme Court in the months ahead, where the libertarian drive to defend states’ rights will clash with the religious desire to protect the “sanctity of marriage.” Scott Lemieux at The Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/01/how-will-doma-fare-scotus" type="external">bets</a> the federalist bent of the court’s conservative swing votes will see DOMA struck down. Those of us who value civil rights for all communities, especially minorities, hope he’s right.</p>
<p>For pushing the highest court in the land to consider the legality of a law that discriminates against same-sex couples, we honor the judges of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (led by Michael Boudin, who wrote the opinion) as our Truthdiggers of the Week.</p>
<p>–Alexander Reed Kelly</p> | Truthdiggers of the Week: Judges of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/truthdiggers-of-the-week-judges-of-the-1st-u-s-circuit-court-of-appeals/ | 2012-06-02 | 4 |
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<p>In the end – isolated, mocked and loathed by millions of protesters who swarmed the streets around her presidential fortress on the side of a sacred granite mountain – even the conservative adulation that had been her political bedrock failed to save her.</p>
<p>Parliament impeached Park and stripped her of all power Friday amid fury over prosecution claims that she had handed over extraordinary power to a corrupt friend. Her prime minister takes over while the nation’s Constitutional Court reviews whether to accept the lawmakers’ vote and drive her permanently from office.</p>
<p>Park could still wriggle out of the noose if the court goes against the overwhelming sentiment most of the country seems to share and restores her presidency. But her dream of extending the legacy of her father, Park Chung-hee, is ruined.</p>
<p>It is hard to imagine a more absolute fall for a woman who conservatives had long cherished as the self-sacrificing “Daughter of the Nation,” a woman who survived a knife attack a decade ago on the campaign trail that left her face slashed, and who rose above widespread sexism to build a political juggernaut.</p>
<p>Her supporters admired the student who put aside girlish dreams to serve as first lady after her mother was assassinated in 1974; the leader who shunned her brother and sister to avoid the corruption that had brought down so many others; the spinster who shut down any semblance of romantic love to devote herself entirely to public service.</p>
<p>None of it, though, was enough to efface the public anger and shame that has flooded over her as the details of a remarkable scandal emerged.</p>
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<p>The speed of the collapse has been as remarkable as it has been comprehensive.</p>
<p>It was only a month and a half ago that Park made a surprise apology to the nation and acknowledged that she had relied on an old friend to help edit speeches and conduct unspecified “public relations.”</p>
<p>As the weeks wore on and the crowds grew at Saturday rallies staged within screaming distance of the Blue House, prosecutors built a more sinister case against her, one that shocked a country.</p>
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<p /> | Impeachment of S. Korean president tarnishes legacy | false | https://abqjournal.com/906376/impeachment-of-s-korean-president-tarnishes-legacy.html | 2 |
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<p>FILE – This Feb. 16, 2013 file photo shows a printout of the Facebook page for Loren Williams, now deceased, at the Beaverton, Ore. home of his mother, Karen Williams. Williams sued Facebook for access to Loren’s account after he died in a 2005 motorcycle accident at the age of 22. The Uniform Law Commission on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 was expected to endorse a plan to automatically give loved ones access to — but not control of — all digital accounts, unless otherwise specified. (AP Photo/Lauren Gambino, File)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — You’ve probably decided who gets the house or that family heirloom up in the attic when you die. But what about your email account and all those photos stored online?</p>
<p>Grieving relatives might want access for sentimental reasons, or to settle financial issues. But do you want your mom reading your exchanges on an online dating profile or a spouse going through every email?</p>
<p>The Uniform Law Commission, whose members are appointed by state governments to help standardize state laws, was on track Wednesday to endorse a plan that would give loved ones access to — but not control of — the deceased’s digital accounts, unless specified otherwise in a will.</p>
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<p>To become law in a state, the legislation would have to be adopted by the legislature. If it did, a person’s online life could become as much a part of estate planning as deciding what to do with physical possessions.</p>
<p>“This is something most people don’t think of until they are faced with it. They have no idea what is about to be lost,” said Karen Williams of Beaverton, Oregon, who sued Facebook for access to her 22-year-old son Loren’s account after he died in a 2005 motorcycle accident.</p>
<p>The question of what to do with one’s “digital assets” is as big as America’s electronic footprint. A person’s online musings, photos and videos — such as a popular cooking blog or a gaming avatar that has acquired a certain status online — can be worth considerable value to an estate. Imagine the trove of digital files for someone of historical or popular note — say former President Bill Clinton or musician Bob Dylan — and what those files might fetch on an auction block.</p>
<p>“Our email accounts are our filing cabinets these days,” said Suzanne Brown Walsh, a Cummings &amp; Lockwood attorney who chaired the drafting committee on the proposed legislation. But “if you need access to an email account, in most states you wouldn’t get it.”</p>
<p>But privacy activists are skeptical of the proposal. Ginger McCall, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, said a judge’s approval should be needed for access, to protect the privacy of both the owners of accounts and the people who communicate with them.</p>
<p>“The digital world is a different world” from offline, McCall said. “No one would keep 10 years of every communication they ever had with dozens or even hundreds of other people under their bed.”</p>
<p>Many people assume they can decide what happens by sharing certain passwords with a trusted family member, or even making those passwords part of their will. But in addition to potentially exposing passwords when a will becomes public record, anti-hacking laws and most companies’ “terms of service” agreements prohibit anyone from accessing an account that isn’t theirs. That means loved ones technically are prohibited from logging onto a dead person’s account.</p>
<p>Several tech providers have come up with their own solutions. Facebook, for example, will “memorialize” accounts by allowing already confirmed friends to continue to view photos and old posts. Google, which runs Gmail, YouTube and Picasa Web Albums, offers its own version: If people don’t log on after a while, their accounts can be deleted or shared with a designated person. Yahoo users agree when signing up that their accounts expire when they do.</p>
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<p>But the courts aren’t convinced that a company supplying the technology should get to decide what happens to a person’s digital assets. In 2005, a Michigan probate judge ordered Yahoo to hand over the emails of a Marine killed in Iraq after his parents argued that their son would have wanted to share them. Likewise, a court eventually granted Williams, the Oregon mother, access to her son’s Facebook account, although she says the communications appeared to be redacted.</p>
<p>Enter the Uniform Law Commission. According to a draft of the proposal, the personal representative of the deceased, such as the executor of a will, would get access to — but not control of — a person’s digital files so long as the deceased didn’t prohibit it in the will. The law would trump access rules outlined by a company’s terms of service agreement, although the representative would still have to abide by other rules including copyright laws.</p>
<p>That means, for example, a widow could read her deceased husband’s emails but couldn’t send emails from that account. And a person could access music or video downloads but not copy the files if doing so violated licensing agreements.</p>
<p>Williams said she supports letting people decide in their wills whether accounts should be kept from family members.</p>
<p>“I could understand where some people don’t want to share everything,” she said in a phone interview this week. “But to us, losing him (our son) unexpectedly, anything he touched became so valuable to us.” And “if we were still in the era of keeping a shoebox full of letters, that would have been part of the estate, and we wouldn’t have thought anything of it.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneKFlaherty</p> | What happens to your online accounts when you die? | false | https://abqjournal.com/430198/what-happens-to-your-online-accounts-when-you-die.html | 2 |
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<p>Shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) are leading U.S. bank stocks higher, rising by as much as 5% on Monday as yields on U.S. Treasuries push higher.</p>
<p>The yield on the 10-Year U.S. Treasury is rising for the fourth straight day in a row, jumping to 2.28% on Monday from a relative low of 2.18% on April 18, 2017. The market is now pricing in higher odds of a June rate hike by the Federal Reserve, which would be a boon for most American banks.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>The odds of a June rate increase rose to a 66% chance vs. 53% on Friday, based on implied odds extrapolated from the futures market. A rate increase by the Fed would be especially good for Bank of America's earnings, given it is sensitive to interest rates on the short end of the curve.</p>
<p>On its most recent conference call, the company explained that a 1-percentage-point increase in rates across the curve would add $3.3 billion to net interest income, of which "nearly three-quarters" would come from the short end of rate curve. The short end of the rate curve is most affected by any changes in the Fed Funds rate.</p>
<p>Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Chart by author.</p>
<p>Frequently one of the most active stocks on the market by volume, many traders and investors use Bank of America shares as something of a leveraged bet on the direction of interest rates.With the market pricing in greater odds of a rate increase, it's no surprise to see Bank of America shares moving higher in active trading on Monday.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Bank of AmericaWhen 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 April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFValueMagnet/info.aspx" type="external">Jordan Wathen Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Bank of America Shares Jumped 5% on Monday | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/24/why-bank-america-shares-jumped-5-on-monday.html | 2017-04-24 | 0 |
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<p><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghosting" type="external">Urban Dictionary Opens a New Window.</a> defines "ghosting" as "The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone." While the term originated in the dating world, it seems to be slithering into the workplace, too.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.recruiter.com/career.html" type="external">Professional Opens a New Window.</a> ghosting is horrible when you're on the receiving end, but it can also be disastrous for your reputation if&#160;you're the one doing the ghosting.&#160; <a href="http://www-scf.usc.edu/~kooti/files/kooti_email.pdf" type="external">According to a study done at the University of Southern California, Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;more than 90 percent of email replies happen within a day of receiving the message. If you haven't received a reply within a day or two, there's a good chance you're being ghosted. And if you haven't sent a reply within a day or two, there's a good chance you're doing the ghosting.</p>
<p>Getting Ghosted</p>
<p>No one likes to be on the receiving end of a professional ghosting. It can hurt your self-esteem, leading you to question yourself and your competency: Did I say something wrong? Could I have done this differently?</p>
<p>The important thing to remember if you're being professionally ghosted is to take the high road. Learn from the experience and don't ghost others. If you come across the person who ghosted you at a later time, keep calm and act professionally.</p>
<p>While it's okay to mention that you sent them an email (or many) without getting a response, it's important to clearly demonstrate that you aren't holding a grudge. It's fine to feel negatively on the inside, but you should keep your outward presentation pleasant. No one likes someone who holds grudges, especially at work. Plus, ghosting may be unprofessional, but you never know what may have come up to prevent that person from responding to your email.</p>
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<p>Being the Ghost</p>
<p>It may seem easy to just brush off an email without responding, but on top of being extremely rude, professional ghosting hurts your own reputation.</p>
<p>Have you decided that you don't want to work with someone or that a project isn't the right fit? Totally your choice, but take action and tell your potential partners what's going on. There's nothing worse than negotiating with someone only to have them cut contact all of a sudden. It's okay to pull out of a project, but you should communicate that. Don't burn any bridges!</p>
<p>When you ghost someone, you send some unprofessional signals, like:</p>
<p>- You don't care enough or respect the other party enough to respond.</p>
<p>- You aren't professional and do not handle professional situations with class.</p>
<p>- You can't take responsibility&#160;for your decisions.</p>
<p>Do you want to send these messages to your professional network? Hopefully not!</p>
<p>So You Ghosted Someone – How Do You Fix It?</p>
<p>It is better to respond late than never to respond at all. Sure, long response times are still rude, but if you want to remedy the situation, the best way to do so is to take responsibility.</p>
<p>Here's a great sample message you can send after ghosting someone:</p>
<p>"Hi ___,</p>
<p>So sorry for the delayed response. This email should have gotten out to you sooner. Unfortunately, we've decided to go with another option, but we appreciate your hard work and would love to keep in touch about future opportunities. Best of luck in your endeavors!"</p>
<p>This response shows that you're sorry, takes&#160;accountability for your actions, and lays out the situation clearly. All you can do is take responsibility, learn from your mistakes, and not do it again. A simple email like this&#160;takes seconds to craft and shows the recipient that you care enough to take the time to respond. No one can hold it against you if you've gone a different direction as long as you've been clear with your communication.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Professional ghosting is a bad situation, no matter which side you're on. If you've been ghosted, take the high road and move forward, knowing that you deserve better. If you're the ghost, rise to the occasion and take responsibility for your actions. Is one email really worth ruining your reputation and, potentially, your career?</p>
<p>Michele Lando is a certified professional resume writer and the founder of&#160; <a href="http://writestylesonline.com/" type="external">Write Styles. Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Professional 'Ghosting': What Is It, and Why Is It So Horrible? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/06/professional-ghosting-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-so-horrible.html | 2017-02-10 | 0 |
<p>PARIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - French healthcare group Sanofi has agreed to buy U.S. peer Bioverativ for $11.6 billion, in a deal which Sanofi said would boost its earnings and strengthen its presence in the field of treatment for rare diseases.</p>
<p>Sanofi has agreed to buy all of the outstanding shares of Bioverativ for $105 per share in cash, marking a premium of 64 percent to Bioverativ’s closing price on January 19, 2018.</p>
<p>“With Bioverativ, a leader in the growing hemophilia market, Sanofi enhances its presence in specialty care and leadership in rare diseases, in line with its 2020 Roadmap, and creates a platform for growth in other rare blood disorders,” said Sanofi chief executive Olivier Brandicourt in a statement.</p>
<p>“Together, we have a great opportunity to bring innovative medicines to patients worldwide, building on Bioverativ’s success in driving new standards of care with its extended half-life factor replacement therapies,” he added. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN JOSE (Reuters) - The center-left’s Carlos Alvarado Quesada decisively defeated a conservative Protestant singer in Costa Rica’s presidential runoff election on Sunday by promising to allow gay marriage, protecting the country’s reputation for tolerance.</p> Carlos Alvarado Quesada, presidential candidate of the ruling Citizens' Action Party (PAC), celebrates his victory during the presidential election in San Jose, Costa Rica April 1, 2018. REUTERS /Jose Cabezas
<p>A former minister and fiction writer, Quesada, 38, had 61 percent of the vote with results in from 95 percent of polling stations, a far bigger lead than predicted by opinion polls that foresaw a tight race.</p>
<p>“My commitment is to a government for everybody, in equality and liberty for a more prosperous future,” he told thousands of cheering supporters blowing horns and waving Costa Rica’s red, white and blue flag.</p>
<p>“There is much more that unites us than divides us.”</p> Fabricio Alvarado Munoz, presidential candidate of the National Restoration party (PRN), gestures during a rally after the official election results were released in San Jose, Costa Rica April 1, 2018. REUTERS/Randall Campos NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.
<p>His rival, Alvarado Munoz, a 43-year-old former TV journalist known for religious dance songs, quickly conceded, sinking to his knees, arms raised, in front of supporters, some of them crying.</p>
<p>“We didn’t win the election,” he said, adding that he had congratulated his opponent in a telephone call and, in another sign of Costa Rica’s cordial politics, promised to help him resolve the country’s problems.</p>
<p>The election had exposed divisions in the Central American tourist destination known for laid-back beach culture and pristine rainforests, but where some rural communities remain socially conservative.</p>
<p>It could also reflect the mood elsewhere in Latin America, where elections are being held this year in several countries that have backed same sex unions, provoking a conservative reaction.</p>
<p>Alvarado Quesada, until recently a minister in the outgoing government, will be the youngest president in the modern history of Costa Rica when he takes office in May.</p>
<p>Also known for his student prog-rock band, he used the campaign to appeal to his country’s centrist streak. His vice presidential candidate, Epsy Campbell, will be the country’s first Afro-Costa Rican to serve in that role.</p> Slideshow (8 Images)
<p>Opponent Alvarado Munoz had vowed to restore what he called traditional values by preventing gay marriage and restricting women’s access to abortions.</p>
<p>The two men took opposing positions on a January decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an influential regional body based in San Jose.</p>
<p>Fabricio, as supporters refer to Alvarado Munoz, called the ruling an affront to sovereignty. Threatening to remove the country from the court’s jurisdiction, he shot from the margins to win the first round of voting in February.</p>
<p>Quesada, by contrast, backed the court’s ruling. In the campaign’s final debate, he called his opponent’s comments homophobic.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Alire Garcia and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Clarence Fernandez</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - China has increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p> FILE PHOTO: Several-week-old pigs stand in a pen inside a barn at Paustian Enterprises in Walcott, Iowa, November 19, 2014. REUTERS/Daniel Acker/File Photo
<p>The tariffs, to take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday by China’s finance ministry and matched a list of potential tariffs on up to $3 billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23</p>
<p>Soon after the announcement, an editorial in the widely read Chinese tabloid Global Times warned that if the U.S. had thought China would not retaliate or would only take symbolic counter-measures, it can now “say goodbye to that delusion.”</p>
<p>“Even though China and the U.S. have not publicly said they are in a trade war, the sparks of such a war have already started to fly,” the editorial said.</p> FILE PHOTO: A butcher cuts a piece of pork at a market in Beijing, China, March 25, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
<p>China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was suspending its obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce tariffs on 120 U.S. goods, including fruit and ethanol. The tariffs on those products will be raised by an extra 15 percent.</p>
<p>Eight other products, including pork and scrap aluminum, will now be subject to additional tariffs of 25 percent, it said, with the measures effective from April 2.</p>
<p>“China’s suspension of its tariff concessions is a legitimate action adopted under WTO rules to safeguard China’s interests,” the Chinese finance ministry said.</p>
<p>The retaliatory tariffs came amid escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, which have rocked global financial markets in the past week as investors feared a full-blown trade spat between two countries will be damaging for world growth.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump is separately preparing to impose tariffs of more than $50 billion on Chinese goods intended to punish Beijing over U.S. accusations that China systematically misappropriated American intellectual property - allegations Beijing denies.</p>
<p>China has repeatedly promised to open its economy further, but many foreign companies continue to complain of unfair treatment. China warned the United States on Thursday not to open a Pandora’s Box and spark a flurry of protectionist practices across the globe.</p> FILE PHOTO: A labourer works on coils of steel wire at a steel wholesale market in Beijing, China, January 17, 2012. REUTERS/Soo Hoo Zheyang/File Photo
<p>“There are some people in the West who think that China looks tough for the sake of a domestic audience, and would easily make concessions in the end,” the Global Times editorial said.</p>
<p>“But they are wrong.”</p>
<p>The Global Times is run by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, although its stance does not necessarily reflect Chinese government policy.</p>
<p>In a statement published on Monday morning, the Chinese commerce ministry said the United States had “seriously violated” the principles of non-discrimination enshrined in World Trade Organization rules, and had also damaged China’s interests.</p>
<p>“China’s suspension of some of its obligations to the United States is its legitimate right as a member of the World Trade Organization,” it said, adding that differences between the world’s two largest economies should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Tony Munroe; Additional reporting by David Stanway in SHANGHAI and Stella Qiu in BEIJING; Additional Writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Eric Meijer &amp; Shri Navaratnam</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks began the new quarter on Monday with modest gains following a strong performance by global equities last week, while the dollar held steady ahead of key economic indicators.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.15 percent.</p>
<p>South Korea’s KOSPI was flat and Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.5 percent. Shanghai was up 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>Wall Street surged last Thursday as technology stocks rebounded, ending a tumultuous first quarter on a high note.</p>
<p>Many major financial centers were closed for the Good Friday Easter holiday. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Britain and Germany remained shut on Monday while the U.S. market will resume trading.</p>
<p>MSCI’s world equity index ended up 1.2 percent last week. But it lost about 1.5 percent in the first quarter, pushed away from record highs as tensions over global trade escalated, turmoil in the White House deepened and market-leading technology firms wobbled on fears of regulation and other issues.</p>
<p>“We expect strong and broad-based growth to continue globally,” wrote strategists at Barclays.</p>
<p>But they warned that there were looming risks: “Trade protectionism, U.S. economic policy uncertainty, concerns about higher cross-market volatility and risk premium in core rates markets call for a more tactical approach to risk assets.”</p>
<p>While last month’s fears of an all-out global trade war have abated somewhat, tensions between the United States and China over tit-for-tat tariffs kept investors on edge.</p>
<p>China on Monday imposed tariffs on U.S. products including frozen pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>In currencies, the dollar was steady at 106.350 yen, while the euro was almost unchanged at $1.2317.</p>
<p>The greenback had gained about 0.6 percent against a basket of six major currencies last week helped by a combination of factors including perceived progress on North Korea issues.</p>
<p>The dollar index still lost more than 2 percent last quarter, marking its fifth straight quarter of declines.</p>
<p>“A list of important indicators will be released this week, which could help steady market sentiment even though U.S.-China trade concerns and other geopolitical risks continue to linger in the background,” said Koji Fukaya, president at FPG Securities in Tokyo.</p>
<p>U.S. data due this week include Monday’s Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index, Wednesday’s ISM non-manufacturing index and the non-farm payrolls report on Friday.</p>
<p>Crude oil prices extended gains, lifted by a drop in U.S. drilling activity as well as by expectations that the United States could re-introduce sanctions against Iran. [O/R]</p>
<p>U.S. drillers cut seven oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total count down to 797. It was the first time in three weeks that the rig-count fell.</p>
<p>U.S. crude futures rose 0.3 percent to $65.14 a barrel and Brent advanced 0.5 percent to $69.67 a barrel.</p>
<p>“Investors took their cue from falling U.S drilling counts,” Wang Xiao, head of crude oil research with Guotai Junan Futures said.</p>
<p>“But increasing trade friction between China and U.S. is likely to rock global markets and tarnish bullish sentiment in crude oil markets.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam &amp; Sam Holmes</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration this week will unveil the list of Chinese imports targeted for U.S. tariffs to punish Beijing over technology transfer policies, a move expected to intensify trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.</p> U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on the Infrastructure Initiative at the Local 18 Richfield Training Site in Richfield, Ohio, U.S., March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
<p>The list of $50 billion to $60 billion worth of annual imports is expected to target “largely high-technology” products and it may be more than two months before tariffs take effect, administration officials have said.</p>
<p>The U.S. Trade Representative’s office needs to unveil the list of products by Friday under President Donald Trump’s China tariff proclamation signed on March 22.</p>
<p>The tariffs are aimed at forcing changes to Chinese government policies that USTR says results in the “uneconomic” transfer of U.S. intellectual property to Chinese companies.</p>
<p>The agency’s “Section 301” investigation authorizing the tariffs alleges China has systematically sought to misappropriate U.S. intellectual property through joint venture requirements, unfair technology licensing rules, purchases of U.S. technology firms with state funding and outright theft.</p>
<p>China has denied that its laws require technology transfers and has threatened to retaliate against any U.S. tariffs with trade sanctions of its own, with potential targets such as U.S. soybeans, aircraft or heavy equipment.</p>
<p>On Sunday, Beijing slapped extra tariffs of up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, as well as wine and certain fruits and nuts in response to steep U.S. tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel announced last month by the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Fears have arisen that the two countries will spiral into a trade war that will crush global growth.</p> TARGETING ‘MADE IN CHINA 2025’
<p>U.S. technology industry officials said they expected the Trump administration’s list to target products that benefit from Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” program, which aims to upgrade the country’s domestic manufacturing base with more advanced products.</p>
<p>The state-led program targets 10 strategic industries for replacing imports with Chinese-made products: advanced information technology, robotics, aircraft, shipbuilding and marine engineering, advanced rail equipment, new energy vehicles, electrical generation equipment, agricultural machinery, pharmaceuticals and advanced materials.</p>
<p>“Foreign technology acquisition through various means remains a prime focus under Made in China 2025 because China is still catching up in many of the areas prioritized for development,” USTR said in its report justifying the tariffs.</p>
<p>U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said that preserving America’s technological edge is “the future of the U.S. economy.”</p>
<p>Reports that the tariff list may also include consumer goods such as clothing and footwear drew strong protests from U.S. business groups, which argued that it would raise prices for U.S. consumers.</p> LIMITED TIME FOR TALKS
<p>While there have been contacts between senior members of the Trump administration and their Chinese counterparts since Trump announced his intention to impose tariffs, there has been little evidence of intensive negotiations to forestall them.</p>
<p>“The administration is following the Japan model from the 1980s,” said a tech industry executive. “They’ll publish a Federal Register notice of tariffs on certain products, then try to reach a negotiated settlement over the next 60 days.”During his first stint at USTR in the Reagan administration, Lighthizer employed similar tactics to win voluntary Japanese export restraints on steel and autos.</p>
<p>Wendy Cutler, a former deputy USTR in charge of Asia negotiations, said that addressing the sweeping intellectual property allegations identified by USTR would require major changes to China’s industrial policy. A 60-day settlement may not be realistic in that case.</p>
<p>“I think they’ve set up a high bar for what they need to achieve, in order not to impose these types of tariffs and investment restrictions,” Cutler said.</p>
<p>Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Peter Cooney</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Sanofi confirms deal to buy Bioverativ for $11.6 bln Costa Rica center-left easily wins presidency in vote fought on gay rights China hammers U.S. goods with tariffs as 'sparks' of trade war fly Asia stocks start new quarter on front foot, dollar steady Trump to unveil China tariff list this week, targeting tech goods | false | https://reuters.com/article/bioverativ-ma-sanofi-fr-deals/sanofi-confirms-deal-to-buy-bioverativ-for-116-bln-idUSASM000IBB | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p>Kemar Lawrence scored on a 24-yard free kick in the 88th minute, lifting Jamaica to a 1-0 win over Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals on Sunday at the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Rose_Bowl/" type="external">Rose Bowl</a> in Pasadena, Calif.</p>
<p>Jamaica moves north to oppose the United States in the title match Wednesday at Santa Clara, Calif. The Reggae Boyz are in the final for the second Gold Cup in a row, having lost 3-1 to Mexico in the 2015 title match. Two years ago, Jamaica beat the USA 2-1 in the semifinals.</p>
<p>On Sunday, Jamaica goalie Andre Blake (five saves) and Mexico goalkeeper <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jesus/" type="external">Jesus</a> Corona (four saves) were the story until Lawrence’s winning strike.</p>
<p>From a central position after a Mexico foul, Lawrence bent the ball over the corner of a four-man wall and into the top left corner of the net.</p>
<p>The Jamaican players barely celebrated the goal, instead focusing on preparing to see out the remaining minutes with the lead, which they did.</p>
<p>It was the first time in the tournament that Mexico trailed.</p>
<p>The result undoubtedly will add pressure on under-fire Mexico coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Juan_Carlos/" type="external">Juan Carlos</a> Ossorio, who missed the entire Gold Cup while serving a six-match ban for his actions in the FIFA Confederations Cup earlier this month.</p> | Kemar Lawrence's dramatic goal lifts Jamaica into CONCACAF Gold Cup final vs. USA | false | https://newsline.com/kemar-lawrence039s-dramatic-goal-lifts-jamaica-into-concacaf-gold-cup-final-vs-usa/ | 2017-07-23 | 1 |
<p>The spokesman for President Donald Trump’s personal legal team resigned Thursday, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-lawyers-seek-to-undercut-muellers-russia-investigation/2017/07/20/232ebf2c-6d71-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.bf0678a19007" type="external">the Washington Post reported.</a></p>
<p>Mark Corallo, a conservative public relations strategist, was working on the White House defense against special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference in the 2016 election, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/343058-trump-legal-team-spokesman-resigns-report" type="external">The Hill reported.</a></p>
<p>The reason for his departure wasn’t reported.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/18/mark-corallo-trump-crisis-management-239671" type="external">According to Politico,</a> Corallo had never met Trump or Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz before taking the job.</p>
<p>The outlet <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/trump-mueller-levin-legal-240063" type="external">also reported</a> Corallo previously worked with Mueller in the federal government.</p>
<p>“Bob is the best,” Corallo tweeted on May 18, adding: “If the facts merit, he’ll recommend charging. More importantly, if there’s nothing there, he won’t.”</p>
<p>Corallo had been outspoken on Twitter in his criticism of Trump and the administration prior to his taking the job.</p>
<p>Hey Mr. President, where’s all the “winning?” Or, like the guy from AR, are you going to tell me it depends on the definition of “winning?”</p>
<p>— Mark Corallo (@MarkCorallo1) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkCorallo1/status/859370399469010946" type="external">May 2, 2017</a></p>
<p>But is he aware he can’t be reelected without his base? The swamp creep is a growing trend – a really bad one. <a href="https://t.co/ljOtg5GUyx" type="external">https://t.co/ljOtg5GUyx</a></p>
<p>— Mark Corallo (@MarkCorallo1) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkCorallo1/status/852835116585963521" type="external">April 14, 2017</a></p> | Spokesman For Trump's Legal Team Steps Down | false | https://newsline.com/spokesman-for-trumps-legal-team-steps-down/ | 2017-07-20 | 1 |
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<p>Given the rise of radical Islam, the huge petrodollar wealth of the Middle East and lopsided demography, how has Israel so far survived?</p>
<p>The Jewish state has always depended on three unspoken assumptions for its tenuous existence.</p>
<p>First, a democratic, nuclear Israel can deter larger enemies. In the Cold War, Soviet-backed Arab enemies understood that Israel’s nuclear arsenal prevented them from destroying Tel Aviv.</p>
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<p>Second, the Western traditions of Israel – free-market capitalism, democracy, human rights – ensured a dynamic economy, high-tech weapons, innovative industry and stable government. In other words, 8 million Israelis could count on a greater gross domestic product, less internal violence and more innovation than, say, nearby Egypt, a mess with 10 times more people than Israel and nearly 50 times more land.</p>
<p>Third, Israel counted on Western moral support from America and Europe, as well as military support from the United States.</p>
<p>Israel’s stronger allies have often come to the defense of its democratic principles and pointed out that the world applies an unfair standard to Israel, largely out of envy of its success, anti-Semitism, fear of terrorism and fondness of oil exporters.</p>
<p>Why, for example, does the United Nations focus so much attention on Palestinians who fled Israel nearly 70 years ago, but ignore Muslims who were forced out of India, or Jews who were ethnically cleansed from the cities of the Middle East? Why doesn’t the world worry that Nicosia is a more divided city than Jerusalem, or that Turkey occupies northern Cyprus, or that China occupies Tibet?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, two of these three traditional pillars of Israeli security have eroded.</p>
<p>When the United States arbitrarily lifted tough sanctions against Iran and became a de facto partner with the Iranian theocracy in fighting the Islamic State, it almost ensured that Iran will get a nuclear bomb. Iran has claimed that it wishes to destroy Israel, as if its own apocalyptic sense of self makes it immune from classical nuclear deterrence.</p>
<p>Symbolism counts, too. President Obama was about the only major world leader to skip the recent march in Paris to commemorate the victims of attacks by radical Islamic terrorists – among them Jews singled out and murdered for their faith. Likewise, he was the odd world leader out by skipping this week’s 70-year commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.</p>
<p>Obama is not expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will address Congress in March. An anonymous member of the Obama administration was quoted as calling Netanyahu, a combat veteran, a “coward” and describing him with a related expletive. Another nameless administration official recently said Netanyahu “spat in our face” by accepting the congressional invitation without Obama’s approval and so will pay “a price” – personal animus that the administration has not directed even against the leaders of a hostile Iran.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Obama won’t meet with Netanyahu and yet the president had plenty of time to hold an adolescent bull session with a would-be Internet comedian decked out in Day-Glo makeup who achieved her fame by filming herself eating breakfast cereal in a bathtub full of milk.</p>
<p>Jews have been attacked and bullied on the streets of some of the major cities of France and Sweden by radical Muslims whose anti-Semitism goes unchecked by their terrified hosts. Jewish leaders in France openly advise that Jews in that country emigrate to Israel.</p>
<p>A prosecutor in Argentina who had investigated the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 – an attack widely believed to have been backed by Iran – was recently found dead under mysterious circumstances.</p>
<p>Turkey, a country whose prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was praised by Obama as one of his closest friends among world leaders, has turned openly non-secular and is vehemently anti-Israel.</p>
<p>Until there is a change of popular attitudes in Europe or a different president in the United States, Israel is on its own to deal with an Iran that has already hinted it would use a nuclear weapon to eliminate the “Zionist entity,” with the radical Islamic madness raging on its borders and with the global harassment of Jews.</p>
<p>A tiny democratic beacon in the Middle East should inspire and rally Westerners. Instead, too often, Western nations shrug and assume that Israel is a headache – given that there is more oil and more terrorism on the other side.</p>
<p>Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p /> | Eroding Israel’s tenuous existence | false | https://abqjournal.com/533640/eroding-israels-tenuous-existence.html | 2 |
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<p>A lot of early morning chatter on the internets is focusing on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601180_pf.html" type="external">this WaPo story</a>, which suggests that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s rollout of the Wall Street bailout version 2.0 was “hobbled” by a last minute change of plans. “According to several sources involved in the deliberations, Geithner had come to the conclusion that the strategies he and his team had spent weeks working on were too expensive, too complex and too risky for taxpayers,” the article says. “They needed an alternative and found it in a previously considered initiative to pair private investments and public loans to try to buy the risky assets and take them off the books of banks.”</p>
<p>This news isn’t being received kindly. <a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/" type="external">TPM</a>‘s top headline: “How Geithner’s Bailout Rollout Flopped.” <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/feb/17/obama-administration-useconomy-geithner-vague" type="external">Mike Tomasky</a> echoes the Post and says that Geithner’s effort was “hobbled.” Conservative blog <a href="http://www.redstate.com/pejman_yousefzadeh/2009/02/17/a-picture-of-dysfunction/" type="external">Red State</a> is calling the situation a “picture of dysfunction.”</p>
<p>And yet, why? I agree that Geithner should have ignored his arbitrary deadline in order to put more meat on the bones of his plan. I agree that it is ridiculous that the administration gave Geithner no staff to work with. But shouldn’t we applaud the fact that Geithner did not stubbornly stick to a plan that he could see was not working, despite the fact that he had spent weeks working on it? Wasn’t it characteristic of the Bush Administration to never admit mistakes and to obstinately stick with policies that were obvious failures? Doesn’t that explain years 2003-2006 of the Iraq War and Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure as Secretary of Defense?</p>
<p>Geithner saw that he had a flawed plan. Instead of saying, “It’s too late to change course” or “We put too much work in to switch things now,” he scrapped what he had and went with something better. I say we give him credit for that.</p>
<p /> | Should We Be Critical of the Geithner About-Face? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/02/should-we-be-critical-geithner-about-face/ | 2009-02-17 | 4 |
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<p />
<p>The tech-heavy Nasdaq is the best performing major U.S. stock index this year, gaining 6 percent as the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial averages have wavered between small gains and losses.</p>
<p>The industry has re-established itself as the dominant sector in the U.S. stock market and currently accounts for 20 percent of the value of the S&amp;P 500 index. That is tech's largest share since the dot-com bubble, and makes it the biggest sector in the market.</p>
<p>But the sector's success isn't universal. Some of the most recent earnings reports from big tech companies have highlighted both the good and the bad for the industry.</p>
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<p>Here are three positive trends for tech, and two negative ones.</p>
<p>ROOM TO GROW</p>
<p>The economy is still expanding, but at a tepid pace.</p>
<p>Tech companies, however, are generating rapidly rising sales and profits as they disrupt older industries. And that is drawing in investors.</p>
<p>Many think the Internet boom that ended in 2000 was just the first leg in a wave of technology growth.</p>
<p>"The global digital economy is in its infancy. It's still being constructed," says Joe Quinlan, chief market strategist at U.S. Trust in New York. "So we have tremendous upside when it comes to social media, e-commerce, retailing, you name it."</p>
<p>Facebook's revenue jumped 39 percent in the second quarter. That compares with a 4 percent fall for S&amp;P 500 companies in the period. Revenue at business software company Salesforce.com, which hasn't released its second-quarter figures yet, has tripled over the last five years.</p>
<p>SURPRISINGLY AFFORDABLE</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Despite its run-up, the sector is not that pricey. In fact, tech stocks are trading at a slight discount to the market.</p>
<p>The average price-earnings ratio, a measure of how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings, is 16.2 for tech companies in the S&amp;P 500. That is below the 16.6 ratio for the entire index, meaning that tech as a group is fractionally cheaper than the overall market.</p>
<p>"I don't see a valuations bubble," says Jeremy Zirin, head of investment strategy at UBS Wealth Management in New York. "It's not that there isn't froth in some areas, it's just not that pervasive."</p>
<p>Even after a 19-fold increase in the price of Apple's stock during the past decade, it's difficult to argue that it costs too much.</p>
<p>The P/E for Apple's stock is 11.7, considerably less than the average tech company and the overall market.</p>
<p>Google is another giant with modest valuations.</p>
<p>The Internet company's stock surged in mid-July after it reported better-than-expected earnings for the first time since October 2013. It rose further this month after it announced that it was changing its corporate structure. The change was welcomed by investors who want more transparency about how Google spends its money.</p>
<p>Investors also liked what they heard from Google's new chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, a Wall Street veteran, who has delivered a message of newfound austerity.</p>
<p>Businesses are still moving to the Internet and increasing their spending on advertising, trends that are far from over, says Matt Peron, managing director of global equity at Northern Trust, an asset manager. Those trends should benefit Google, the dominant force in online search and marketing.</p>
<p>That outlook, combined with a reasonable valuation, makes Google an attractive stock to own, he says. The company's P/E is 20.7, above the average for the S&amp;P 500, but not excessively so.</p>
<p>DIVIDENDS</p>
<p>During the last Internet boom, tech companies developed reputations for being extravagant spenders. The money was spent chasing growth, not pleasing shareholders.</p>
<p>Nowadays, many of the larger, more established tech companies are returning cash to shareholders in the form of dividend payments.</p>
<p>Two-thirds of technology firms in the S&amp;P 500 pay a dividend, according to S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices, accounting for 15 percent of all dividend payments made by companies in the index. Some of the biggest names in the sector even pay better-than-average dividends.</p>
<p>Microsoft has a 2.6 percent dividend yield, which measures how much a company pays in dividends compared to its stock price. The S&amp;P 500 average is 1.9 percent. IBM and Intel are also offering higher rates than the market.</p>
<p>Those quarterly payments are especially appealing to investors in an era of extraordinarily low yields in other investments, such as high-quality bonds.</p>
<p>WATCH OUT FOR FROTH</p>
<p>Investors may be getting carried away with the prospects for some stocks. Netflix is an example.</p>
<p>The company has been on an incredible run. Since bottoming out at a split-adjusted $7.54 in August 2012, the stock has soared 16-fold to peak at $126.45 on Aug. 6.</p>
<p>Netflix has added 38 million subscribers around the world during the past three years while expanding into dozens of countries. It's solidified its position as the leader in streaming video.</p>
<p>But investors are paying a high price for that growth. The P/E on the stock has jumped to 419 this year.</p>
<p>If those lofty expectations for earnings growth are not met, an uncomfortable adjustment could follow.</p>
<p>Twitter's stock, for example, has lost almost half its value from a peak in October as the company struggles to satisfy investors' demands for revenue and user growth. And online business review company Yelp has dropped 70 percent since its September high as it grapples with the market's expectations.</p>
<p>OVERSEAS EXPOSURE</p>
<p>Tech is the most exposed of all the S&amp;P 500 sectors to demand from overseas.</p>
<p>About 60 percent of the sector's revenue comes from abroad, according S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices.</p>
<p>As a result, earnings in the group will be hit if the dollar continues to strengthen, as it has done over the past two years. That's because a stronger dollar reduces the value of overseas sales and makes U.S.-produced goods more expensive for foreign buyers.</p>
<p>Microsoft and eBay were two technology companies that lamented the impact of the stronger dollar in their most recent earnings.</p>
<p>Tech companies are also vulnerable to weaker growth in economies overseas. That was illustrated this week when Apple slumped on worries that the Chinese economy was slowing more markedly than investors thought.</p>
<p>Apple's stock dropped 5.2 percent on Tuesday after the Chinese government devalued its currency, the yuan. Most analysts saw the move as an attempt to prop up growth.</p>
<p>The iPhone maker generates almost 17 percent of its sales from China.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Liedtke reported from San Francisco.</p> | In a slow-growth world, technology stocks are trending again | false | https://abqjournal.com/628469/in-a-slow-growth-world-technology-stocks-are-trending-again.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>Image source: Dave &amp; Buster's.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>There's a new high score on Dave &amp; Buster's (NASDAQ: PLAY)leaderboard. Shares of the "eatertainment" chain raced to a new high after Tuesday's market close, moving to uncharted territory after posting another blowout quarter.</p>
<p>Revenue climbed 19% to $228.7 million, as heady expansion and a 5.9% surge in comps combined to deliver better than expected top-line growth. Analysts were only holding out for 12% top-line growth. Earnings more than doubled to $0.25 a share, also blowing past Wall Street's profit target.</p>
<p>A popular theme in recent months is the "restaurant recession" that finds diners and investors staying away from restaurants and restaurant stocks, respectively. This is obviously not happening when it comes to Dave &amp; Buster's, so let's explore a few of the reasons why it's bucking the trend.</p>
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<p>It's easy to defy the "restaurant recession" when you're more than just an eatery. Dave &amp; Buster's relies on high-margin amusements and corporate events to generate more than half of its revenue. Food and beverage accounted for just 44% of its revenue during the quarter.</p>
<p>Investors should be cheering on the larger slice of the pie going to amusements, a category where Dave &amp; Buster's is scoring more than double the profit margin. The scalable nature of the model should keep earnings growing faster than revenue, but a continuing shift to amusements will all but assure the trend.</p>
<p>Dave &amp; Buster's quarterly profit of $10.8 million is 135% ahead of the prior year's third-quarter showing. More importantly for stock-performance purposes, net income of $0.25 a share obliterates the $0.14 a share that Wall Street pros were forecasting.</p>
<p>Investors shouldn't be surprised. Dave &amp; Buster's has blown past analyst profit estimates in each of its nine quarters as a public company. It hasn't even been close, with the chain coming through with at least double-digit percentage beats every time.</p>
<p>Data source: Yahoo! Finance.</p>
<p>Tuesday's 79% beat is the eatery operator's second biggest showing as a public company. Dave &amp; Buster's knows what it's doing. It raised its guidance on Tuesday, but history tells us that the restaurateur is underselling its reality.</p>
<p>Dave &amp; Buster's has tripled since going public at $16 two years ago, and that's before its post-earnings pop. The 88-unit chain expects to open 11 new locations this year, and the establishments don't come cheap. The high cost provides a hurdle for potential competitors.</p>
<p>Many call the chain a "Chuck E. Cheese" for adults, but that's also a perk. Anyone that would try to ape the concept would be seen as a Dave &amp; Buster's wannabe.</p>
<p>Keeping things differentiated has helped the concept beat industry unit-level growth for 18 consecutive quarters. That kind of consistency isn't a fluke. Dave &amp; Buster's is special, and once again, Mr. Market is rewarding the bulls.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Dave and Buster's Entertainment When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Dave and Buster's Entertainment. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Reasons Why Dave & Buster's Is Bucking the Restaurant Recession | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/07/3-reasons-why-dave-buster-is-bucking-restaurant-recession.html | 2016-12-07 | 0 |
<p>In recent weeks, the indirect approach the Marines adopted in April in Fallujah, when they withdrew instead of storming the city, began to pay off. A reduction of American pressure allowed fissures within the Iraqi resistance to appear and grow. Fallujah natives were beginning to turn against outsiders, most of whom represent extreme Islamism, America’s real enemy. Such splits are of the utmost importance in Fourth Generation war, because they operate at war’s most powerful level, the moral level. There is a vast moral difference between us killing fighters for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah and the locals doing so.</p>
<p>If American military leaders understood Fourth Generation war, they would slowly, patiently encourage the local Iraqi resistance to go after the outsiders, providing rewards and even assistance, if that was wanted (all done covertly, of course). The first genuine American victory in Iraq would be the day the local resistance asked for our (again, covert) help.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, our leaders do not understand the Fourth Generation, so it appears we are about to throw this opportunity away. We continue to bomb and shell Fallujah, which pushes our enemies toward each other. We seem to be readying an all-out assault on the city, which will have the usual result when Goliath defeats David: a moral defeat for Goliath. Many Iraqis will die, the city will be wrecked (as always, we will promise to rebuild it but not do so), and any losses the insurgents suffer will be made up many times over by a flood of new recruits. Never was it more truly said that, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”</p>
<p>Our nightly bombing of Fallujah illustrates another important point about 4GW: to call it “terrorism” is a misnomer. In fact, terrorism is merely a technique, and we use it too when we think it will benefit us. In Madam Albright’s boutique war on Serbia, when the bombing campaign against the Serbian Army in Kosovo failed, we resorted to terror bombing of civilian targets in Serbia proper. Now, we are using terror bombing on Fallujah.</p>
<p>Of course, we claim we are hitting only Mr. al-Zarqawi’s fighters, but anyone who knows ordinance knows that is a lie. The 500, 1000 and 2000-pound bombs we drop have bursting radii that guarantee civilian casualties in an urban environment. More, it appears we see those civilian casualties as useful.</p>
<p>The October 12 New York Times offered this interesting quote from “one Pentagon official:”</p>
<p>If there are civilians dying in connection with these attacks, and with the destruction, the local as some point have to make a decisionDo they want to harbor the insurgents and suffer the consequences that come with that, or do they want to get rid of the insurgents and have the benefit of not having them there?</p>
<p>As the article goes on to make clear, American officials believe such terror bombing will split the resistance. In fact, the whole history of air warfare says it will have the opposite effect.</p>
<p>The point here is not merely that in using terrorism ourselves, we are doing something bad. The point is that, by using the word “terrorism” as a synonym for anything our enemies do, while defining anything we do as legitimate acts of war, we undermine ourselves at the moral level ­ which, again, is the decisive level in Fourth Generation war.</p>
<p>Imagine if Mr. al-Zarqawi himself said the following about the suicide car bombs his group uses, bombs that have killed many Iraqi civilians:</p>
<p>If there are civilians dying in connection with these attacks, and with the destruction, the locals at some point have to make a decision. Do they want to harbor the Americans and suffer the consequences that come with that, or do they want to get rid of the Americans and have the benefits of not having them there?</p>
<p>Would we denounce that as “justifying terrorism?” Of course we would ­ and rightly so.</p>
<p>What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the turkey. Obvious double standards put us on the moral low ground. The rest of the world can see the hypocrisy, even if what passes for America’s “leaders” cannot. As the old saying goes, it is worse than a crime; it is a blunder.</p>
<p>WILLIAM S. LIND, expressing his own personal opinion, is Director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Fallujah and the Moral Level of War | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/10/22/fallujah-and-the-moral-level-of-war/ | 2004-10-22 | 4 |
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<p>In addition, Secretary Jon Barela said, about 200 jobs are expected to be created in the state in the next several months in response to the tax bill, which cuts the state’s corporate income tax rate, among other things.</p>
<p>“We needed to get competitive from a tax standpoint,” Barela said after Friday’s meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee.</p>
<p>Barela declined to name the businesses that might have left New Mexico if the tax package were not enacted, as debate over the measure continues to simmer more than two months after it was approved.</p>
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<p>Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, who questioned Barela on the tax package’s economic impact during Friday’s hearing, said he is skeptical of the job-retention claims.</p>
<p>He said after the meeting that the job numbers — both retention of existing jobs and creation of new ones — were not provided during legislative debate on the tax package and questioned whether they serve to justify it now.</p>
<p>“I don’t think that making public policy based on threats is a good thing to do,” Candelaria said.</p>
<p>The Friday discussion came three days after the Martinez administration’s top budget officer apologized to lawmakers for claiming in March that the tax package would have a positive fiscal impact for the state during each of the next five years.</p>
<p>Finance and Administration Secretary Tom Clifford said the information he provided on the House floor during the final minutes of this year’s session was based on a different version of the compromise tax bill from the one adopted.</p>
<p>An estimate by legislative staff released after lawmakers approved the tax package indicated the legislation will cost the state more than $70 million in lost revenue in the 2017 fiscal year.</p>
<p>However, the impact is not all negative, according to the legislative estimate. The tax changes will provide the state with about $15 million in additional tax revenue during the next two budget years, before the fiscal impact turns negative. The estimate also does not factor in possible future economic development.</p>
<p>Additional Department of Finance and Administration research has concluded that the tax package will ultimately generate $29 million in “new” revenue in 2030, when the legislation will be fully implemented.</p>
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<p>The projection was echoed Friday by Barela, who said he’s optimistic about the tax package’s budgetary impact.</p>
<p>“I think over the long term this is going to be a net positive,” Barela said.</p>
<p>Several lawmakers defended the tax package during Friday’s hearing, with Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park, saying she would have “panicked” if lawmakers had not passed the bill, given the prospect of looming federal budget cuts.</p>
<p>Some top-ranking Democratic lawmakers also have expressed support for the package, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming.</p>
<p>Smith, one of the architects of the tax bill — a compromise supported by Martinez as well as sufficient numbers of Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate — described it in March as the closest thing to “true, total tax reform” in his legislative tenure.</p>
<p>In addition to gradually trimming the state’s corporate income tax rate from 7.6 percent to 5.9 percent, the legislation also will phase out the “hold harmless” payments the state currently makes to cities and counties.</p>
<p>Other pieces of the package include an expansion of the state’s film tax credit for qualifying television shows filmed in New Mexico, tighter requirements to receive two existing tax breaks and new corporate tax reporting requirements for certain manufacturers and retailers.</p>
<p>Candelaria, who was one of the dissenting voices in the Senate’s 34-8 vote to approve the tax measure, said he is left to hope the changes end up bolstering the state’s economy.</p>
<p>“It’s now the law, so at this point we’re all hopeful that jobs will result,” Candelaria said.</p> | Barela: Tax package saved, created jobs | false | https://abqjournal.com/200607/barela-tax-package-saved-created-jobs.html | 2013-05-18 | 2 |
<p>On Sunday, CNN correspondent Jake Tapper posted one Gold star mother’s fiery response to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s announcement on Friday that he was not standing for the playing of the national anthem because of American racism.</p>
<p>Kaepernick <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem" type="external">told NFL Media</a> after the preseason game with the Green Pay Packers, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."</p>
<p>One Gold Star, infuriated beyond belief that Kaepernick would flagrantly disparage the country that has given him the opportunity to make over $110 million dollars while her son was murdered in Afghanistan defending America, blistered Kaepernick, as Tapper reported:</p>
<p>Whatever you may think about Colin Kaepernick's decision, here's how it impacted one Gold Star Mom. <a href="https://t.co/3uaUxNsFoM" type="external">pic.twitter.com/3uaUxNsFoM</a></p>
<p>On Saturday, 49ers coach Chip Kelly told reporters that Kaepernick's decision not to stand during the national anthem was "his right as a citizen,” continuing, "it's not my right to tell him not to do something."</p>
<p>The NFL stated tersely, "Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem."</p>
<p>The NBA's Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the Denver Nuggets, who was Chris Jackson before converting to Islam, also has refused to acknowledge the flag, claiming it conflicted with some of his Islamic beliefs. The NBA suspended him briefly before he started standing for the anthem again.</p>
<p>"He died so that ungrateful, privileged, arrogant men like you can be just that - ungrateful, privileged, and arrogant."</p>
<p>Gold Star mother blasting Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand for the national anthem</p>
<p>Some players were angry at Kaepernick; Vikings guard Alex Boone, a former 49er whose brother served in the U.S. Marine Corps, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/vikings/2016/08/28/alex-boone-rips-colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-49ers/89514450/" type="external">told</a> USA Today Kaepernick “should have some [expletive] respect for people who served. Especially people that lost their life to protect our freedom. We’re out here playing a game, making millions of dollars. People are losing their life, and you don’t have the common courtesy to do that. That just drove me nuts.” He added that Kaepernick’s actions were “shameful.”</p>
<p>On Sunday, Kaepernick <a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691874/article/colin-kaepernick-ill-continue-to-sit-during-national-anthem" type="external">doubled down</a>, blustering, "Yes, I'll continue to sit. I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me, this is something that has to change. When there's significant change, and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent and this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."</p> | This Gold Star Mom Has The Greatest Response to Kaepernick’s Anti-Flag Sit-Down | true | https://dailywire.com/news/8727/gold-star-mom-has-greatest-response-kaepernicks-hank-berrien | 2016-08-29 | 0 |
<p>Japanese automaker Honda is seeing a 20 percent jump in fiscal first quarter profit on the back of a cheap yen that offset the damage from a massive air bag recall.</p>
<p>Honda Motor Co. reported Friday April-June net profit of 186 billion yen ($1.5 billion), up from 155.6 billion yen the same period the previous year.</p>
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<p>Quarterly sales gained nearly 16 percent to 3.7 trillion yen ($29.9 billion).</p>
<p>The Tokyo-based maker of the Accord sedan and Odyssey minivan has been the hardest hit among automakers from the costs related to a global recall of Takata Corp.'s air bags that can explode.</p>
<p>Results got a boost from healthy sales, especially in North America. The cheap yen, which lifts the overseas earnings of Japanese exporters, also helped. Honda left forecasts unchanged.</p> | Honda records 20 pct rise in profit on cheap yen despite costs of massive air bag recalls | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/31/honda-records-20-pct-rise-in-profit-on-cheap-yen-despite-costs-massive-air-bag.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>Shares of some top insurance companies are up at 1 p.m.:</p>
<p>ACE L rose $.62 or .6 percent, to $112.52.</p>
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<p>Aflac Inc. rose $.37 or .6 percent, to $64.89.</p>
<p>American International Group rose $.83 or 1.5 percent, to $57.42.</p>
<p>MBIA rose $.12 or 1.3 percent, to $9.71.</p>
<p>MGIC Investments Corp. rose $.19 or 1.9 percent, to $10.08.</p>
<p>MetLife rose $.53 or 1.0 percent, to $51.35.</p>
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<p>XL Group PLC rose $.17 or .4 percent, to $38.03.</p> | Insurance companies shares up at 1 p.m. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/11/insurance-companies-shares-up-at-1-pm.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>TORONTO (AP) — Outfielder Curtis Granderson and the Toronto Blue Jays have finalized a $5 million, one-year contract.</p>
<p>The three-time All-Star wore a Blue Jays T-shirt in a video posted to his Twitter timeline Tuesday and wrote he was "thrilled" to announce he'll be playing north of the border this season.</p>
<p>He can earn an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses based on plate appearances: $125,000 for 450, $250,000 apiece for 500 and 550, $375,000 for 600 and $500,000 for 650.</p>
<p>Granderson agreed to the deal about a week ago, subject to a successful physical.</p>
<p>The 36-year-old is Toronto's second outfield acquisition in five days. Randal Grichuk was acquired in a trade from St. Louis on Friday.</p>
<p>Toronto also has outfielders Ezequiel Carrera, Steve Pearce and Kevin Pillar.</p>
<p>Grandson split last season between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, hitting .212 with 26 home runs in 527 plate appearances.</p>
<p>A 14-year veteran who has also played for Detroit and the New York Yankees, Granderson is a career .252 hitter with 319 home runs and 865 RBIs.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP baseball coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p>
<p>TORONTO (AP) — Outfielder Curtis Granderson and the Toronto Blue Jays have finalized a $5 million, one-year contract.</p>
<p>The three-time All-Star wore a Blue Jays T-shirt in a video posted to his Twitter timeline Tuesday and wrote he was "thrilled" to announce he'll be playing north of the border this season.</p>
<p>He can earn an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses based on plate appearances: $125,000 for 450, $250,000 apiece for 500 and 550, $375,000 for 600 and $500,000 for 650.</p>
<p>Granderson agreed to the deal about a week ago, subject to a successful physical.</p>
<p>The 36-year-old is Toronto's second outfield acquisition in five days. Randal Grichuk was acquired in a trade from St. Louis on Friday.</p>
<p>Toronto also has outfielders Ezequiel Carrera, Steve Pearce and Kevin Pillar.</p>
<p>Grandson split last season between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, hitting .212 with 26 home runs in 527 plate appearances.</p>
<p>A 14-year veteran who has also played for Detroit and the New York Yankees, Granderson is a career .252 hitter with 319 home runs and 865 RBIs.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP baseball coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p> | Granderson, Blue Jays finalize $5 million, 1-year deal | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a5530a32d26345eb85560565e6089a49 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military announced on Thursday it is reopening an investigation into the death of a paraplegic Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip who died during a violent protest along the border with Israel.</p>
<p>The military said it will examine the circumstances of Ibrahim Abu Thraya's death last month after new information emerged. Palestinian medical records in Gaza obtained by The Associated Press show he was killed by a bullet that struck him in the head.</p>
<p>The military closed its initial probe after a day, saying live fire was employed against the main instigators of the protest but was not directed at Abu Thraya, and that it was impossible to determine the cause of his death.</p>
<p>The case has become a rallying cry among Palestinians since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.</p>
<p>The 29-year-old Abu Thraya, who lost his legs in a separate incident several years ago, was killed on Dec. 15 in clashes that broke out along the Israeli border. Palestinians say he was shot deliberately by an Israeli sniper - a claim the military denies.</p>
<p>The medical records, which include a hospital report and a death certificate, say Abu Thraya was struck by a bullet above his left eye and died from bleeding in the brain. The same findings were detailed in a report by the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service reviewed by the AP. The reports did not specify who fired the bullet or what caliber it was.</p>
<p>Posters of Abu Thraya in a wheelchair, raising the Palestinian flag and flashing a "victory" sign, have become ubiquitous in Gaza. He has emerged as a symbol of resistance to Trump's Jerusalem move, which the Palestinians largely see as siding with Israel.</p>
<p>JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military announced on Thursday it is reopening an investigation into the death of a paraplegic Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip who died during a violent protest along the border with Israel.</p>
<p>The military said it will examine the circumstances of Ibrahim Abu Thraya's death last month after new information emerged. Palestinian medical records in Gaza obtained by The Associated Press show he was killed by a bullet that struck him in the head.</p>
<p>The military closed its initial probe after a day, saying live fire was employed against the main instigators of the protest but was not directed at Abu Thraya, and that it was impossible to determine the cause of his death.</p>
<p>The case has become a rallying cry among Palestinians since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.</p>
<p>The 29-year-old Abu Thraya, who lost his legs in a separate incident several years ago, was killed on Dec. 15 in clashes that broke out along the Israeli border. Palestinians say he was shot deliberately by an Israeli sniper - a claim the military denies.</p>
<p>The medical records, which include a hospital report and a death certificate, say Abu Thraya was struck by a bullet above his left eye and died from bleeding in the brain. The same findings were detailed in a report by the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service reviewed by the AP. The reports did not specify who fired the bullet or what caliber it was.</p>
<p>Posters of Abu Thraya in a wheelchair, raising the Palestinian flag and flashing a "victory" sign, have become ubiquitous in Gaza. He has emerged as a symbol of resistance to Trump's Jerusalem move, which the Palestinians largely see as siding with Israel.</p> | Israeli army to reopen probe into Gaza paraplegic's death | false | https://apnews.com/cd8e4ed67dbc4467a424a919a2ed85a5 | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>More than 2.1 million people were still left without power during a heat wave on Monday after violent storms over the weekend knocked out power lines from Illinois to Virginia, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-utilities-poweroutages-idUSBRE8610NV20120702" type="external">said Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>Across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, millions were left with no power to run air conditioners during what the National Weather Service is calling a "historic" heat wave.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57464589/historic-heat-wave-meets-mass-power-outages/" type="external">CBS News reported</a> that 99 new record highs were set in June of this year, compared to only one in June 2011 and none in June 2010.</p>
<p>Friday's storms saw winds of more than 60 miles per hour knock down several large trees and in turn knock out the power, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/pepco-dominion-and-bge-cite-severity-of-storm-in-explaining-long-recovery/2012/07/01/gJQAs3SxGW_story.html" type="external">according to The Washington Post</a>. Rodney Blevins, the vice president of electric distribution operations at Dominion Virginia Power, said the damage caused by the storm resulted in the third worst outage in the company's history, according to The Post.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120701/colorado-wildfire-victims-return-home" type="external">Colorado wildfire victims return home</a></p>
<p>Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley told CNN, "But unlike a polite hurricane that gives you three days of warning, this storm gave us all of the impact of a hurricane without any of the warning of a hurricane," <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-heat-storm-cleanup-20120702,0,1761453.story" type="external">according to The Los Angeles Times</a>.</p>
<p>Reuters reported that American Electric Power Co. Inc., was still working to restore power to 465,000 in Virginia and West Virginia, 416,000 in Ohio, 52,000 in Indiana and 14,000 in Kentucky.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/canada/120701/canadians-marks-145-years-nationhood-canada-day" type="external">Canadians mark 145 years of nationhood on Canada Day</a></p>
<p>CBS News said nearly 1 million are without power in the Washington, D.C., area.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/02/power-outages-storm-heatwave-live?newsfeed=true" type="external">According to the Guardian</a>, the storm that took out power lines and trees is called a "derecho." The National Weather Service describes a derecho as a "widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath."</p>
<p>The Post reported that some customers may have to wait until Friday for their power restored.</p> | Power outages leave 2.1M without power in heat wave | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-07-02/power-outages-leave-21m-without-power-heat-wave | 2012-07-02 | 3 |
<p />
<p>When it comes to grabbing a hiring manager’s attention with a resume, it’s not all about the skills and experience. Human resource departments are putting more emphasis on soft skills like communication skills, cultural fit and a candidate’s ability to work as part of a team.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A recent employer survey&#160;conducted by the&#160; <a href="http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/2013_EmployerSurvey.pdf" type="external">Association of American Colleges &amp; Universities Opens a New Window.</a> found that 93% of employers agree that a candidate's demonstrated soft skills are more important than their undergraduate major.</p>
<p>“While field-specific knowledge is incredibly important when applying for jobs, most employers are interested in candidates who also have a broad range of skills and knowledge, including communication, critical&#160;thinking, decision-making,&#160;and&#160;problem solving skills, as well as the ability to work well on teams and manage multiple priorities,” says Becky Takeda-Tinker, president of <a href="http://csuglobal.edu/" type="external">Colorado State University-Global Campus Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Finding well-rounded candidates with the right cultural fit has become an integral part of the screening process, and companies are seeking out grads who can show they are a match in every aspect, according to Dan Schawbel, founder of research and consulting firm <a href="http://millennialbranding.com/" type="external">Millennial Branding Opens a New Window.</a> and author of&#160; <a href="http://danschawbel.com/promote-yourself" type="external">Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>“It’s not just the cost savings, it’s the productivity--if someone is a good match, they’ll thrive there and be so much more successful and that’s good for the company and good for the individual,” he says. “It’s really about match making and that will never change: is this person good for the company? Do they believe the company is right for them?”</p>
<p>To showcase soft skills in a genuine and effective way, here are three tips career experts recommend grads keep in mind.</p>
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<p>Tip No. 1: Show a Vested Interest</p>
<p>Employers can instantly read a candidate’s demeanor and body language in an interview to gauge their interest and commitment to the position, says Brian Dodds, president of strategic workforce recognition organization <a href="http://www.recognition.org/" type="external">Recognition Professionals International Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>“A lot of times people come into an interview and it’s like they’re just showing up, they’re just on time and it’s just enough,” he says. “Then you have other candidates that come in to say, ‘I’ve really been looking forward to this, I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me’ and coming in with a sense of respect and not just thinking, ‘This is a formality or process that we’re in and I hope I get through this.’”</p>
<p>To genuinely convey enthusiasm, grads need to do thorough research on industry news, review the company’s website, social media profiles and even employee blog posts to make sure they will mesh well, says Schawbel.</p>
<p>“If you really want that position and really want to work with that company, you’ll have a better attitude, you’ll give eye contact, and you’ll do all the right things because you know that not only you have to, but you’ll be excited and happy to be there.”</p>
<p>Tip No. 2: Be Ready to Discuss Working Environment Preferences</p>
<p>Before getting to the interview, it’s important for grads to do an honest self reflection about their work style to anticipate being asked by the hiring manager if they work better as an individual or a team.</p>
<p>“The right answer is, ‘I understand that being a part of a team, there’s a synergy there that produces more effort and success than anyone does on their own, and no matter how skilled I am, I’m going to work best when surrounded by others with different skills and abilities that I have and together we can get more done,’” says Dodds.</p>
<p>Schawbel explains that most employers in the current workforce environment favor team work when it comes to accomplishing company goals, but candidates should expect to be graded as individuals as well as by their group work.</p>
<p>“It’s very important to say both, because you might be in both environments—you might be working from home one day and working on a project that doesn’t involve a team as much, you could have individual projects, it really depends.”</p>
<p>Tip No. 3: Give Specific Examples</p>
<p>Job seekers should be prepared to offer specific examples to illustrate their experience for a wide variety of questions, including, "are you a team player?" "are you a problem solver?" and even "are you qualified for this job?" suggests Takeda-Tinker.</p>
<p>“By providing examples and specific information, job seekers are better able to demonstrate that they have the soft skills employers are seeking while also providing potential employers with insight into how they might fit in the organization,” she says.</p>
<p>By discussing specific situations from past experiences (i.e. helping to settle a dispute between two team members at a former internship), as well highlighting other applicable skills, candidates can set themselves apart from the rest, recommends Schawbel.</p>
<p>“What they’re looking for is can you prioritize tasks, do you have good communication skills and interpersonal skills, are you a good team player, do you get along with others, can you work with them and accomplish goals, are you results oriented, if there’s a conflict what do you do?” he says.&#160; “If you have 10 people competing for a job and they all have the same background, who do you choose? You’re going to choose the one who has the best cultural fit.”</p> | How Grads can Effectively Showcase Soft Skills to Employers | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/06/12/how-grads-can-effectively-showcase-soft-skills-to-employers.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — A Wisconsin man who was found mentally unfit to stand trial for the May shooting of an Amtrak conductor outside Chicago will be released to a secure senior living facility.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20180110/news/180119880" type="external">The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald</a> reports that an Illinois judge on Wednesday said he doubted 80-year-old Edward Klein would be restored to fitness.</p>
<p>Klein will be sent to a facility in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, that specializes in care for patients with dementia. Klein is prohibited from leaving the facility except for an emergency.</p>
<p>Klein has been held on $1.5 million bail since the shooting in Naperville. Conductor Michael Case testified that Klein was disoriented and frustrated during the trip. Case was shot in the abdomen.</p>
<p>Doctors have diagnosed Klein with an impaired cognition disorder, dementia and neuro-cognitive disorder. He’s from West Allis, Wisconsin.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Daily Herald, <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com" type="external">http://www.dailyherald.com</a></p>
<p>WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — A Wisconsin man who was found mentally unfit to stand trial for the May shooting of an Amtrak conductor outside Chicago will be released to a secure senior living facility.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20180110/news/180119880" type="external">The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald</a> reports that an Illinois judge on Wednesday said he doubted 80-year-old Edward Klein would be restored to fitness.</p>
<p>Klein will be sent to a facility in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, that specializes in care for patients with dementia. Klein is prohibited from leaving the facility except for an emergency.</p>
<p>Klein has been held on $1.5 million bail since the shooting in Naperville. Conductor Michael Case testified that Klein was disoriented and frustrated during the trip. Case was shot in the abdomen.</p>
<p>Doctors have diagnosed Klein with an impaired cognition disorder, dementia and neuro-cognitive disorder. He’s from West Allis, Wisconsin.</p>
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<p>Information from: Daily Herald, <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.dailyherald.com" type="external">http://www.dailyherald.com</a></p> | Judge sends man charged in train shooting to senior facility | false | https://apnews.com/2b852fd74ecf498f806de91c5e3dc6a9 | 2018-01-11 | 2 |
<p>RICHMOND, Va.—Nearly 500 youth and their sponsors fleshed out an expression of “family” during a two-weekend Mission Madness event in two Virginia cities, coordinated by the <a href="http://www.cbfva.org/" type="external">Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia</a>.</p>
<p>At more than 25 mission sites in Richmond and Waynesboro, the youth in grades 6 through 12 from 32 churches built wheelchair ramps, cleaned public schools and landscaped their yards and helped with feeding and clothing ministries.</p>
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<p>The annual event, held this year on March 23-25 and March 30-April 1, centered on the theme “We Are Family.” The theme reflected the CBFVA’s 2012 focus on familia, an initiative to develop an understanding of the Latino concept of “family,” especially in churches’ communities.</p>
<p>“What made this year of Mission Madness unique is fact that I caught of glimpse of how we are truly becoming familia together,” said CBFVA field coordinator Rob Fox. “When the youth arrived and stepped off their church buses, they would ask, ‘Do you remember me?’ After taking a careful look, I would say, ‘Yes, of course I remember you!&#160; You were at Mission Madness last year, right?’ They would smile, nod and then race off to join some other old friends for a weekend on mission.</p>
<p>“After three years of serving together, how could I forget those smiling faces?&#160; These faces have become so familiar – like family – and as those buses of teenagers arrived to Mission Madness, I got a glimpse of the future of our Fellowship.”</p>
<p>At several worship experiences during the weekends, Mission Madness pastor Jennifer McClung, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Pendleton, S.C., challenged youth to be aware of work God wants to accomplish through them.</p>
<p>“I challenged the students to toss a rock into a pool of water as a reminder that just as the rock makes ripples that spread out further and further, we are called to work in the world in such a way that makes ‘ripples,’” said McClung.</p>
<p />
<p>Seventeenth and Main, a Richmond-based Christian band, led music during the worship services.</p>
<p>Dale Tadlock, who coordinated the event in Waynesboro, said Mission Madness applies the Latino concept of familia to Christian service.</p>
<p>“During worship time, the students were really exploring the idea of what it means to have an extended family,” said Tadlock, minister to young adults and students at First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, which hosted the activities there.</p>
<p>“They’re being challenged to look at it from a biblical idea that we’re not just our own churches, or our own youth group, but we’re part of a bigger family,” he said.</p>
<p>The Waynesboro weekend drew 325 youth and adults from 19 churches. In Richmond, where Winfree Memorial Baptist Church and its minister of youth, Rusty Lee, served as host, 150 youth and adults from 13 churches participated.</p>
<p>Mark Snipes, associate pastor for youth and young adults at Central Baptist Church, coordinated overall Mission Madness activities.</p>
<p>Fox said the program is a way to encourage youth to start small with mission before taking on a more global approach.</p>
<p>”This is the first step for them understanding how the world comes into their own backyard,” said Fox, who also is pastor of Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Milford, Va.</p>
<p>The youth can learn that understanding, he said, “through ministry with their Latino neighbors, but then also extending that grace out to be a presence of Christ beginning at home and then around the world.”</p>
<p>Robert Dilday ( <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.</p> | ‘Family’ is focus of two-weekend Mission Madness | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/familyisfocusoftwo-weekendmissionmadness/ | 3 |
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<p>Although he’s not very well known in the U.S., save among members of the Sant’Egidio community (of which he’s the founding father), Andrea Riccardi is a major figure in the Catholic Church in Italy: a historian of the papacy, a commentator on all things Catholic, and a player in various ecclesiastical dramas.</p>
<p>Most recently, according to Vatican reporter Sandro Magister, Riccardi has taken to defending the Italian character of the Roman Curia, which, after a period of internationalization, has become more pronounced over the past decade. Magister quotes Riccardi as arguing that “the Curia cannot become a kind of U.N., because it is part of the Roman Church and must maintain a particular ecclesial, human, and cultural connection with it.”</p>
<p>Permit me to disagree.</p>
<p>The pope is the Bishop of Rome; Rome is an Italian see; the pope governs the diocese of Rome through a cardinal vicar. It is entirely appropriate that the cardinal vicar be Italian and that the personnel of the Vicariate of Rome be predominantly Italian; they are, after all, at the service of the local Roman church.</p>
<p>Because he is the Bishop of Rome, the pope is also “the universal pastor of the Church” (a title used by the Vatican’s official yearbook in noting the beginning of the pope’s solemn initiation of his Petrine ministry). The more traditional title, “supreme pontiff of the universal Church,” denotes the same reality. In this Petrine service as supreme pastor of the Church throughout the world, the pope employs the Roman Curia. Curial history is complex and need not detain us here; the crucial point is that the Curia today exists to inform and give effect to the pope’s ministry as pastor of the universal Church. The Vicariate of Rome attends to the pope’s mission as a local bishop; the Curia attends to the pope’s ministry as supreme pontiff of the universal Church.</p>
<p>Andrea Riccardi is quite right that “the Curia cannot become a kind of U.N.,” but probably not for the reason he intends. The Curia ought not be “a kind of “U.N.” because the U.N. is a self-serving, bloated, and often corrupt bureaucracy. But it makes no sense, today, to argue that the Curia is “part of the Roman Church,” save in the obvious sense that it is located in Rome and therefore takes part in the life of the local Roman Church. The Curia’s purpose, however, is not local but universal: and that is why it is counterintuitive to suggest that any one national culture has a particular aptitude for staffing the Roman Curia, or that the Roman Curia as a 21st century institution has a unique connection to the local Roman Church.</p>
<p>It is true that the Curia’s modus operandi remains largely Italianate and that Italian language competence is a sine qua non of effective service in the Curia today. But the former is not without its difficulties, as the Banco Ambrosiano scandal of the early 1980s, the oft-remarked languid Curial pace, and persisting patterns of Curial cronyism and nepotism ought to demonstrate. And while the Roman Curia may well be the last holdout against English as the primary working language of international centers across the globe, it will almost certainly succumb at some point.</p>
<p>In his service as universal pastor of the Church, the pope must be able to draw on talent from all over the world Church; Italy will surely contribute some of that talent, but it has no monopoly on it. Curialists often speak of “the way we do things here.” Yet those ways, some impressive, some not, were formed in a distinctive epoch of Catholic history – Counter-Reformation Catholicism – that is coming to an end. The universal ministry of the pope in the Evangelical Catholicism to which Vatican II and the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI are giving birth is going to require a different kind of central administration, a different kind of Roman Curia.</p>
<p>It certainly shouldn’t be “a kind of U.N.” But there is no reason for it to be dominantly Italian, either.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | Must the Roman Curia be Italian? | false | https://eppc.org/publications/must-the-roman-curia-be-italian/ | 1 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Las Cruces mother suspected of driving while intoxicated with her 22-month-old son in the vehicle was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center on a $10,000 bond, charged with child abuse and several traffic violations, police said in a news release.</p>
<p>Kayla L. Christman, 24, is facing charges of intentional child abuse, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, no driver's license, no insurance, expired registration and operating a vehicle without required headlights, police said.</p>
<p>Shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, a police officer spotted a 2004 Saturn Ion with a passenger-side headlight not working, and when he conducted a traffic stop, he said Christman appeared intoxicated, the release said.</p>
<p>Christman's 22-month-old son was in a child-safety seat in the back seat of the vehicle, and an adult friend was in the passenger seat, according to police.</p>
<p>Officers administered field sobriety tests, which Christman failed, and a subsequent breath-alcohol test determined she was over the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle, police said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Las Cruces mom accused of DWI, abuse | false | https://abqjournal.com/175334/las-cruces-mom-accused-of-dwi-child-abuse.html | 2013-03-06 | 2 |
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<p>Big brands are important to successful businesses, and the worldwide awareness for both the Marlboro cigarette line sold internationally by Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) and the namesake Coke brand from Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) have created corporate empires and strong profits. Yet both companies have faced some criticism from consumer advocates because of potential health impacts, and both have had to take steps to look at ways of responding to that criticism and finding new paths to growth. But for those seeking to invest now, which one is the smarter pick? Below, we'll examine Philip Morris and Coca-Cola more closely to see which looks better on a variety of different key measures of investing success.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Between these two stocks, Philip Morris International is the only one that has gained ground over the past year. The tobacco giant has given shareholders about 17% in price appreciation and dividend payments, compared to a flat total return for Coca-Cola since this time last year.</p>
<p>It would be reasonable to expect that with better stock performance, Philip Morris would have the higher valuation, leaving Coca-Cola to more closely resemble a value stock. However, that isn't the case, at least by simple conventional valuation methods. When you look at trailing earnings, Coca-Cola's current multiple exceeds 30, while Philip Morris has a somewhat cheaper valuation of 25 times trailing earnings. The disparity narrows when you look at forward earnings expectations, but Philip Morris retains a slight edge, with a forward multiple of 21 compared to Coca-Cola's valuation of 22 times forward earnings. Philip Morris has delivered more returns yet stayed less expensive, giving it an edge over Coca-Cola.</p>
<p>Image source: Coca-Cola.</p>
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<p>Dividend investors often look to the consumer sector for good payouts, and Philip Morris and Coca-Cola are strong performers within the consumer space. Philip Morris has a slight edge over Coca-Cola in terms of dividend yield, with the cigarette giant's 3.75% yield outpacing the 3.4% figure from the beverage behemoth.</p>
<p>Supporting those yields has been somewhat more difficult recently. Both companies have payout ratios that exceed 90%. Yet that hasn't stopped the companies from increasing their dividend payments to shareholders, albeit at a slower rate than investors have seen in the past. Coca-Cola boasts a 55-year streak of consecutive annual dividend increases. Philip Morris would rival that if you took into account the dividend history of its former parent company, but its limited history as an independent company holds it back by this measure. In terms of dividends, Philip Morris and Coca-Cola have very similar characteristics right now.</p>
<p>Both Philip Morris and Coca-Cola have hit some obstacles to growth and are working to figure out better ways to move forward. For Philip Morris, the answer appears to be reduced-risk products like its iQOS heated-tobacco system. In its most recent quarter, the tobacco giant saw cigarette shipment volumes plunge 11.5%, hurting net revenue. Philip Morris still managed to boost net income by 4%, but even big gains in iQOS sales weren't enough to keep the company's top line from contracting slightly. The question Philip Morris faces is whether reduced-risk efforts will be able to offset weakness in traditional cigarettes, and investors aren't counting on super-fast growth from Philip Morris overall in the near future.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola has seen similar challenges. The company said after its first-quarter earnings report last month that it would cut 1,200 jobs, with broader efforts intended to cut costs more widely throughout the beverage company. New CEO James Quincey is taking steps to try to counter downward pressure from falling sales, which were down 11% from year-ago levels. With attempts to pursue opportunities in the water, milk, and alternative drink spaces, Coca-Cola is desperately trying to respond to consumer shifts away from sugary soft drinks. With rival drink makers having seen some success, it might be easier for Coca-Cola to follow suit than investors once thought.</p>
<p>In the end, both of these stocks have pluses and minuses, and there isn't as clear-cut a winner between the two companies as we've seen in the past. Given the likelihood of major shifts at Coca-Cola with new management in place, investors who are optimistic about changing trends might prefer the beverage company's growth potential even with a more expensive valuation.</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>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of May 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger 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> | Better Buy: Philip Morris International, Inc. vs. Coca-Cola | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/25/better-buy-philip-morris-international-inc-vs-coca-cola.html | 2017-05-08 | 0 |
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<p>Image source: Fitbit.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) slumped on Thursday after the stock was downgraded to underperform by an analyst at Pacific Crest. At 3 p.m. EDT, shares were down about 10%.</p>
<p>According the Pacific Crest analyst Brad Erickson, the Charge 2, Fitbit's latest fitness band, is off to a slow start. Erickson pointed to accumulating inventory in the channel and a rate of sell-through below initial levels for Fitbit's Blaze and Alta fitness bands. Erickson lowered his estimates for the fourth quarter and 2017 based on these issues.</p>
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<p>Another piece of news that could be rattling Fitbit shares: Health insurance company Aetna announced that it was subsidizing Apple Watches for select employers and customers during the healthcare enrollment season. This move by Aetna is a vote of confidence in the Apple Watch, and potentially a major negative for Fitbit.</p>
<p>Fitbit faces the dual problems of convincing its customers to upgrade and fighting off competition from more fully featured devices like the Apple Watch. The Charge 2 brought improvements compared to the original Charge, but it may not be enough to produce growth for the company.</p>
<p>Weak initial sales of the Charge 2 may not be a strong predictor of holiday sales, so investors should take this analyst downgrade with a grain of salt. Having said that, Fitbit will need to prove during this holiday season that it can sustain its growth. The company has been spending heavily on both research and development and sales and marketing in recent quarters, wiping out much of its profits in an effort to drive product development. If Fitbit can't produce growth after all that spending, the stock could tumble even further.</p>
<p>As always, analyst upgrades and downgrades don't replace doing your own research. But the points raised by Erickson should be concerning to Fitbit investors nonetheless.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Fitbit. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Fitbit Stock Tumbled Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/29/why-fitbit-stock-tumbled-today.html | 2016-09-29 | 0 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Transylvania University is probably not the school to attend if you’re hoping to avoid hearing Dracula jokes. But for Kayla Dobson, an Eldorado graduate, the private school in Lexington, Ky, was a perfect fit.</p>
<p>“I’ve heard a lot (of jokes),” Dobson said. “You kind of get used to it, you learn to laugh with it. We just play along with it.”</p>
<p>Dobson, who played basketball and volleyball at Eldorado, is a sophomore center for the Transylvania Pioneers but it was the lure of the library, not the hardwood that led her to the Division III program.</p>
<p>“I really just came out here for the academic part of the school,” Dobson said. “Playing basketball is nice too but that was really the most appealing part.”</p>
<p>Dobson, who is majoring in biology with a psychology minor, had opportunities to stay closer to home and play basketball but chose to try something new.</p>
<p>Dobson considered attending the University of New Mexico or playing basketball at New Mexico Highlands, but eventually decided to leave the desert for the Bluegrass State.</p>
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<p>“It’s very different from Albuquerque. The weather is a lot more humid and it rains a lot.” Dobson said. “Other than that, it wasn’t too hard to get used to but it’s hard being away from family. A lot of people out here are really close to home. When everyone else is going home on the weekends, you have to get used to staying on campus. After a while you get to like being alone and having time to do whatever you want.”</p>
<p>Leaving Albuquerque was a tough decision for Dobson, who is one of just three players on the team who are not from Kentucky, but it may have been just as tough on her family.</p>
<p>“I think they had mixed feelings about it,” Dobson said. “I have a twin sister who is at Oklahoma State, so for both of us to leave my parents at the same time was hard for them. But they were also excited that we got to go out and do our own thing.”</p>
<p>They definitely keep in touch, my mom and grandma send packages all the time and make phone calls. They take care of us.”</p>
<p>Dobson’s thing is studying so she can eventually be a pediatrician, but she still finds time to contribute for the Pioneers on the basketball court.</p>
<p>As a freshman last year, the 5-foot-11 center played in 27 games and averaged 3.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game as the Pioneers went 14-13 and finished fourth in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.</p>
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<p>But the start of her sophomore year was delayed because of an injury and left Dobson eager to get back on the court. Dobson missed the first two weeks of her sophomore season after she suffered a concussion during a scrimmage.</p>
<p>“Being out for two weeks is a long time,” Dobson said. “I’ve never been out that long.”</p>
<p>Dobson played her first game of the season Tuesday and scored two points in eight minutes in a Pioneers win.</p>
<p>Saturday, Dobson scored four points and grabbed five rebounds in 12 minutes as Transylvania won again.</p>
<p>While the numbers aren’t overly impressive, Dobson knows she’s at Transylvania to do more than score points.</p>
<p>“I was looking around at a lot of colleges,” Dobson said. “Some locally, some junior colleges but the reason I chose Transylvania was because of academics. College is partly about playing basketball but mostly it’s about going to school.” — This article appeared on page D2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Eldorado Grad Lured to Transylvania | false | https://abqjournal.com/238351/eldorado-grad-lured-to-transylvania.html | 2 |
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<p>Fox News Megyn Kelly made every fair thinking person and every woman specifically very proud. She excoriated Lou Dobbs &amp; Erick Erickson about their misogynistic rant while discussing <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/nearly-40-percent-of-mothers-are-now-the-family-breadwinners-report-says/2013/05/28/8de03ec8-c7bb-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html" type="external">a study</a> that showed that more women than ever have become the sole breadwinners or primary breadwinners in the home. Erick Erickson even had the nerve to misrepresent science saying “ <a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/31/fox-news-contributor-claims-that-science-supports-men-earning-more-than-women/" type="external">When you look at biology, when you look at the natural world, the roles of a male and a female in society and in other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complementary role.</a>”</p>
<p>Megyn Kelly was not having any of it. She asked Erick, "What makes you dominant and me submissive and who died and made you scientist-in-chief?"&#160; She also made it clear she was none too happy about his <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2013/05/30/the-truth-may-hurt-but-is-not-mean/" type="external">blog post on Red State</a> in which he stated the following</p>
<p>Many feminist and emo lefties have their panties in a wad over my statements in the past 24 hours about families. I said, in a statement reflecting the view of three quarters of those surveyed in a Pew Research Center poll, that more women being the primary or sole breadwinners in families is harmful to raising children. This result came from a survey <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/nearly-40-percent-of-mothers-are-now-the-family-breadwinners-report-says/2013/05/28/8de03ec8-c7bb-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html?wpmk=MK0000203" type="external">that found</a> “nearly four in 10 families with children under the age of 18 are now headed by women who are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families.”&#160; [ <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2013/05/30/the-truth-may-hurt-but-is-not-mean/" type="external">source</a>]</p>
<p>Megyn also asked him why his statements should be believed after she hit him with data from over 50 years of research and 69 studies that show that children whose mothers work do not have any more problems than those who do not. His answer was typical. He implied their studies were politically motivated. Lou Dobbs simply rambled so that Megyn simply balled him out and moved on.</p>
<p>Watch the video below.</p>
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<p>Fox News for a change allowed science to be used against a thought process that permeates not only men and women in their network but in the codification of what it is to be in&#160; the Republican Party today. Where was Megyn’s excoriation of Republican Senate candidates <a href="" type="internal">Todd Akin</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Richard Murdock</a> during their war on women? One is left wondering whether this dust up is simply to stop the further alienation of women cosmetically while still maintaining the support of a party that still sees women as subservient and pre-1920.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> LIKE My <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/EgbertoWilliescom/181893712536" type="external">Facebook Page</a> – Visit My Blog: <a href="http://www.EgbertoWillies.com" type="external">EgbertoWillies.com</a></p> | Fox News Megyn Kelly Excoriates Misogynists Lou Dobbs & Erick Erickson | true | http://egbertowillies.com/2013/05/31/fox-news-megyn-kelly-excoriates-misogynists-lou-dobbs-erick-erickson/?fb_source%3Dpubv1 | 2013-05-31 | 4 |
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<p>Update, October 14, 12:47 p.m.: Tuesday’s Democratic debate averaged <a href="https://twitter.com/TVMoJoe/status/654336000206856192" type="external">15.3 million viewers</a>, making it the highest-rated Democratic primary debate in history.</p>
<p>Previously:</p>
<p>Donald Trump and political pundits alike predicted that the first Democratic debate would tank with audiences, but the initial numbers show otherwise.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/13/media/cnn-democratic-debate-live-stream-record/index.html" type="external">CNN</a>, which live-streamed last night’s event as well as the second Republican showdown back in September, the Dems scored 980,000 concurrent live streams, while the Republican debate peaked at 921,000 streams.</p>
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<p>You don’t need Trump to get ppl to watch: CNN livestream peaked at 980K concurrent streams; GOP debate peak was 921K <a href="http://t.co/ZJcmUmfFWU" type="external">http://t.co/ZJcmUmfFWU</a></p>
<p>— Taniel (@Taniel) <a href="https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/654155228837740544" type="external">October 14, 2015</a></p>
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<p>Granted, the live-stream numbers reflect a particular, possibly younger and more Democratic-leaning audience than overall viewership. Still, while the Donald may fancy himself a ratings magnet—so much that he graciously offered to <a href="" type="internal">live-tweet the Democratic debate</a>to keep viewers engaged—it appears he’s not the only one who can deliver audiences.</p>
<p /> | Last Night’s Debate Was the Most Watched Democratic Debate Ever | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/democratic-debate-ratings-donald-trump/ | 2015-10-14 | 4 |
<p>Hours after $1.4 million worth of jewels went missing, a man sent stars running and caused temporary panic at the Cannes film festival on Friday by firing a starter’s pistol into the air.</p>
<p>Police responded to an outdoor stage broadcasting “Le Grand Journal,” a nightly news program with actor Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil as guests, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-panic-gunshots-heard-man-524617" type="external">The Hollywood Reporter</a> said.</p>
<p>Police arrested the man, who was found with the pistol, pocket knife and plastic grenade. He fired twice into the air.</p>
<p>A witness told The Hollywood Reporter that police warned spectators about the danger.</p>
<p>“I thought I heard them say, ‘Run, he has a gun,” the witness said, according to THR.</p>
<p>In video of the broadcast, viewers begin scurrying off stage as announcers speak to producers off-stage.</p>
<p>“He said to a woman next to him, ‘if I were you, I wouldn’t stick around here,’” show host Michel Denisot said, according to <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20130517-arrest-man-gun-shooting-cannes-film-tv-studio-canal" type="external">France 24</a>.</p>
<p>“The police intervened. He had a hand grenade. There were no bullets in the gun and the grenade was a fake.”</p>
<p>Photographers on the scene captured images of police wrestling with the suspect, <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_CANNES_GUN_SCARE?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2013-05-17-17-02-43" type="external">The Associated Press</a> reported.</p>
<p>Early Friday morning, an employee with Chopard reported a theft of millions in jewelry from a hotel room safe.</p>
<p />
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<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/france/130517/cannes-jewelery-heist-sees-1-million-worth-bling-vanish" type="external">Cannes jewelry heist sees $1-million worth of bling vanish</a></p> | Cannes shooting sends stars scurrying for cover (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-17/cannes-shooting-sends-stars-scurrying-cover-video | 2013-05-17 | 3 |
<p><a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-gFL" type="external">21st Century Wire</a> asks…</p>
<p>HAVE YOUR SHOUT: Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly rejected an unprecedented US Federal Court order that would force the company to decrypt an iPhone linked to one of the&#160;San Bernardino shooters – a move that would have vast implications.</p>
<p>Vote, comment and share below…</p>
<p />
<p>READ MORE ENCRYPTION&#160;NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Encryption Files</a></p> | SHOUT POLL: Should Apple Give FBI Backdoor Access to iPhones? | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/02/27/shout-poll-should-apple-give-fbi-backdoor-access-to-iphones/ | 2016-02-27 | 4 |
<p>Published time: 14 Nov, 2017 05:21</p>
<p>To force RT America to register as a foreign agent is “unprecedented,” Georgetown University journalism professor Chris Chambers says. The law used against the network was first used to combat Nazi propaganda, but has never been applied to a news network.</p>
<p>RT America host Ed Schultz spoke with Chambers on Monday, following a similar reaction from the Committee to Protect Journalists, which called the US government’s designation of RT America under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) “a troubling precedent” and a “bad idea.”</p>
<p>FARA became law in 1938, when the US sought to prevent Nazi propaganda before officially entering World War II. The 79-year-old law has never been used against a news network.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/409780-rt-foreign-agent-reactions/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Schultz said it was “selectively applied to RT to put pressure on perspectives some people in the government, especially Democrats, would rather not hear.”</p>
<p>“Now this is coming from, I believe, Democratic senators such as Jeanne Shaheen and Amy Klobuchar, who supported Hillary Clinton to the hilt and want to retaliate against the Trump presidency. That’s my opinion,” Schultz said on ‘News with Ed’ Monday night.</p>
<p>“It should be pointed out that no employee from RT has ever been invited to testify under oath on Capitol Hill,” Schultz continued. “I ask tonight, where’s the fairness? Because Google and Facebook testified openly just within the last 10 days that RT had a minimal footprint in social media leading up to the election.”</p>
<p>Schultz added that “no one in Congress has pointed to any stories that we have done that are not journalistically-based, that are not fair to the viewer.”</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Chambers estimated that the law has been used “maybe 20 times in 70 years.”</p>
<p>“Basically, you register as a lobbyist or some other organization that is supposedly speaking for another country and another country’s best interests,” he said.</p>
<p>“It’s not the government coming after you with full fangs and claws. It’s the government coming at you like a weasel,” Chambers said. “There’s a difference between a lion coming after you with full fangs and claws and a weasel coming after you through the backdoor. And this is basically backdoor censorship.”</p>
<p>RT America “has the same First Amendment rights as Comcast Universal does with NBC,” Chambers told Schultz. “But they can’t infringe on those rights without doing a backdoor to RT, because they don’t like the content. I mean, it’s clear that they don’t like the content.”</p>
<p>“If it’s a problem with a foreign media outlet,” he continued, “why isn’t it done to the BBC? Why isn’t it done to China national television or the Japanese or any number of other media outlets that, say, the Saudis might contribute to?”</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | US used ‘backdoor censorship,’ attacked RT ‘like a weasel’ – journalism prof (VIDEO) | false | https://newsline.com/us-used-backdoor-censorship-attacked-rt-like-a-weasel-journalism-prof-video/ | 2017-11-14 | 1 |
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<p>WASHINGTON - Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, retreating from highs for the year and amplifying the incentive for prospective home buyers.</p>
<p>Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to 4.04 percent from 4.09 percent a week earlier. The rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 3.21 percent from 3.25 percent.</p>
<p>As in recent weeks, mortgage rates followed the yield on the key 10-year Treasury note, which declined. Bond yields for Treasurys were pushed lower by a rise in bond prices. The yield on the 10-year note eased to 2.33 percent Wednesday from 2.36 percent a week earlier. It held steady in trading Thursday morning at 2.33 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Average US rate on 30-year mortgage falls to 4.04 percent | false | https://abqjournal.com/616871/average-us-rate-on-30-year-mortgage-falls-to-4-04-percent-2.html | 2 |
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<p>It's no secret that Glenn Beck isn't fond of Mike Huckabee and he explained the reasons of his disdain for the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/glenn-beck-mike-huckabee-he-liar-your-face-he-very-disingenuous-man" type="external">ex-Governor and Fox Talker this way:</a></p>
<p>On his radio program today, Glenn Beck <a href="http://www.video.theblaze.com/video/v37128699/harsh-words-for-huckabee" type="external">took a call</a> from a listener who wanted to know why he has made "disparaging comments" about Mike Huckabee in the past and asked Beck to provide some specific evidence to support his obvious dislike of Huckabee.</p>
<p>Predictably, Beck kicked things off by labeling Huckabee "a progressive" and blasting him for supporting Common Core, but then also declared that Huckabee is a liar and "one of the most disingenuous men I have ever, ever met" because he is someone who cynically uses his faith for political purposes."</p>
<p>He is Jeb Bush, hiding behind the cross," Beck said. "He is a liar to your face. He is a very disingenuous man"</p>
<p>How dare Huckabee use his faith for political purposes. It's not like almost every other Republican uses religion to get elected. Oh, wait.</p>
<p>To the conservative base, if you agree with one thing that a Democrat is for then you are a progressive. It's that simple.</p> | Glenn Beck Says Mike Huckabee 'Is A Liar To Your Face' | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/glenn-beck-says-mike-huckabee-liar-your | 2015-01-13 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/timpearcelosgatos/3557791151/"&gt;Tim Pearce, Los Gatos&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>Last August, two prisoners escaped from an Arizona penitentiary and fled to New Mexico, where they ambushed a couple, shot them to death, and lit their bodies on fire inside a trailer.</p>
<p>These fugitives didn’t escape from just any facility: They were housed in a privately run prison managed by the Utah-based Management Training Corporation. After the incident, a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/03/18/20110318arizona-inmates-kill-couple-lawsuit.html" type="external">review</a> by the Arizona Department of Corrections concluded that the prison had poorly trained staff and deficient equipment—including a faulty security system that emitted so many false alarms, the prison staff simply ignored it.</p>
<p>Episodes like this have raised concerns about the privatization of prisons, with critics long arguing that such facilities pose a threat to public safety and don’t save states much—if any—money in the long run. They also argue that such facilities pose a perverse incentive to keep people locked up. Still, the nation could soon see a major private-prison boom, as Republican governors and legislators across the country push privatization proposals to address budget shortfalls.</p>
<p>In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich has <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/03/private_corrections_company_wi.html" type="external">proposed</a> selling five prisons to private companies—a move that would bring in an estimated $200 million up front—while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to <a href="http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/05/legislators-attack-jindal%E2%80%99s-plan-to-privatize-prisons/" type="external">sell</a> three state prisons to private operators. In Florida, the GOP-controlled Legislature is <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/05/v-fullstory/2152587/privatizing-prisons-could-prove.html" type="external">making</a> an even broader push, hammering out a budget bill that would require the state to privatize the prisons in South Florida, where one-fifth of the state’s 100,000-plus inmates reside.</p>
<p>Likewise, Maine’s new GOP governor, Paul Le Page, has vowed to bring private prisons to his state for the first time, backing a bill that would also allow Maine to house out-of-state prisoners. In Texas, where prison privatization began decades ago, Harris County is now <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7527480.html" type="external">deliberating</a> a plan to privatize the state’s largest jail. And in Minnesota, Republican state lawmakers have <a href="http://m.startribune.com/articles/205702419?paging=off" type="external">introduced</a> a bill that would require the state to solicit offers from private companies to manage the state’s inmates.</p>
<p>The prison industry saw a big boom in the 1980s and 1990s, but growth <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/30/how-the-recession-hurts-private-prisons.html" type="external">slowed</a> during the recent recession. Strapped for cash, state corrections agencies have been trying to squeeze prisoners into fewer facilities and reducing sentences for nonviolent criminals. Now, with Republicans back in power on the state level and in Washington, the new prison-privatization fervor could bring back business once again. “Private prisons may be taking a bit of a hit right now, at least in the US,” says Chris Hartney, a senior fellow at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a nonprofit research and public policy organization. But this year’s state budgets could create an “uptick in privatization” if lawmakers succeed in passing such proposals, he adds.</p>
<p>Many of the proposals now under consideration would open prison management and sales up to competitive bidding, often requiring the companies to reduce costs by at least 5 percent. The private corrections industry has claimed it can save taxpayers anywhere between 5 and 15 percent a year, and supporters have cited recent <a href="http://law.vanderbilt.edu/article-search/article-detail/index.aspx?nid=213" type="external">studies</a> to that effect. But critics contend that these promised savings are questionable at best. “If there’s cost savings, it usually comes in the form of something short-term, early on, and it fades over time,” says Travis Pratt, a criminology professor at Arizona State University who’s researched private prisons.</p>
<p>According to a 2007 <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695211587/Privatizing-prison-may-not-save-money.html" type="external">study</a> by the University of Utah, there isn’t much evidence to show that private prisons actually save any money. “Our conclusion is that prison privatization provides neither a clear advantage nor disadvantage compared to publicly managed prisons,” the researchers concluded.</p>
<p>In Florida, three recent cost-effectiveness studies of the state’s private prisons came up with similarly <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8FEUKrs19WkJ:www.policymattersohio.org/pdf/CellsForSale2011.pdf+cells+for+sale+prison+privatization&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us&amp;source=www.google.com" type="external">contradictory</a> results. Likewise, Dr. Gerry Gaes, a former director of research at the federal Bureau of Prisons, <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8FEUKrs19WkJ:www.policymattersohio.org/pdf/CellsForSale2011.pdf+cells+for+sale+prison+privatization&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us&amp;source=www.google.com" type="external">told</a> Policy Matters Ohio, a left-leaning think-tank: “Direct comparisons of cost and quality neither favor the public nor the private sector.”</p>
<p>Some studies even suggest that private prisons cost more than public ones. According to one 2010 report by the Arizona Department of Corrections, “[T]he cost of housing a medium-security inmate is $3 to $8 more per day in a private prison, depending on what assumptions are made about overhead costs to the state,” as the Arizona Republic <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/08/22/20100822arizona-private-prisons.html" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Critics warn that more than dollars could be at stake, citing the industry’s spotty track record. In Mississippi, a class-action <a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700082547/Suit-attacks-conditions-at-Miss-juvenile-lockup.html" type="external">lawsuit</a> on behalf of 13 inmates in a private facility claims that guards had sex with inmates, and that inadequate medical care and improper oversight led to one inmate suffering from brain damage. Last year, the GEO Group paid a $40 million <a href="http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/rosa-107144-settlement-beating.html" type="external">settlement</a> to the family of an inmate who was beaten to death in 2001 by fellow inmates while guards stood by in a Texas penitentiary.</p>
<p>“There are only so many places you can cut costs, places where you can save money, usually staffing and training,” says Arizona State’s Pratt. “That could present later security concerns. There’s nothing magical about privatization.”</p>
<p>So why would lawmakers embrace prison privatization, when it’s not even clear that it will save taxpayers money in the long run? Some blame the industry’s long-standing, <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/01/gov-elect_kasich_picks_private.html" type="external">cozy ties</a> with lawmakers and aggressive lobbying. Ultimately, whatever the costs down the road, the upfront savings may be too tempting. “In fiscal emergencies, folks aren’t looking too far forward in terms of the true cost of privatization,” concludes NCCD’s Hartney.</p>
<p /> | The GOP’s Jail Sell | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gop-prison-privatization-ohio-florida-minnesota/ | 2011-04-27 | 4 |
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<p>One city managed to avoid the situation — Bismarck, North Dakota, the center of government in the oil-rich state and home to 67,000 people. Others, including Des Moines, Iowa, didn’t, despite protests that led to arrests.</p>
<p>At issue is whether a breach in the $3.8 billion project, being built by Dallas-based parent company Energy Transfer Partners, will affect drinking water, given that it crosses more than 200 water bodies, including the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. While utility officials in Iowa acknowledge it’s likely there’ll be an issue in the future, they’re confident a leak won’t affect the quality of the water.</p>
<p>“I think it’s important to note that it isn’t a matter of if there’ll be eventually some kind of leak or rupture of the pipeline it’s a matter of when and so we certainly want to be vigilant and have measures in place,” Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Energy Transfer Partners counters that the 1,170-mile pipeline will be safe, with devices placed throughout to track pressure, temperature, density and flow that’ll be monitored around the clock by people who can remotely shut off oil flow. Such emergency valves are on either side of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, ETP spokeswoman Vicki Granado said.</p>
<p>Pipe was laid early this month under the Des Moines River, and the route also crosses the Raccoon or its tributaries at three locations upstream from Des Moines, a city of more than 200,000 residents.</p>
<p>Stowe, whose utility has a half-million customers, said there is a plan to deal with an oil leak, and he works with the U.S. Department of Transportation to ensure regular inspections and appropriate flow-stopping measures. He’s more concerned about more commonplace water threats: spills from tanker trucks carrying anhydrous ammonia or petroleum products, as well as farm wastewater spills, sewage leaks and other contaminants.</p>
<p>The Dakota Access pipeline also crosses underneath the Mississippi River, which is a source of water for about 4,000 people in the southeast corner of Iowa and close to a water-treatment plant for the city of Keokuk. The utility’s officials voiced concerns to the Iowa Utilities Board, telling them that a preferred a route would be south of the city’s intake, but the route wasn’t changed. A leak could reach the intake within an hour.</p>
<p>Up in North Dakota, an early plan had the Dakota Access pipeline crossing the Missouri River 10 miles north of Bismarck, but the government rejected it in September 2014 because of the potential drinking water supply threat, the number of water and wetland crossings and proximity to homes, documents show.</p>
<p>Instead, it was run near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, which depends on water from Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir. The tribe took ETP to court over the water threat as well as threats to cultural artifacts, and an encampment protest on federal land swelled to thousands at one point.</p>
<p>On Dec. 4, the Army decided to keep ETP from drilling under the river and look at alternate routes — preventing the completion of the pipeline for now.</p>
<p>Protesters also tried to stop the pipeline from crossing the Des Moines River, confronting workers. But they weren’t successful.</p>
<p>Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director for the Iowa-based environmental group Science and Environmental Health Network, noted the frustration she felt while watching the drilling and pipe installation. She has filed legal challenges and criticized the regulatory process for pipeline permitting, saying the layers of bureaucracy makes it difficult for citizens to be heard in any significant way.</p>
<p>“The problem is a very little bit of oil can make a very big mess,” she said. “We don’t want to drink any oil.”</p> | Not just Standing Rock: Water sources along pipeline at risk | false | https://abqjournal.com/909727/not-just-standing-rock-water-sources-along-pipeline-at-risk.html | 2016-12-15 | 2 |
<p>President Barack Obama repeated his lamentation regarding the growing diversity of news media - a recurring regret he has repeated countless times across his presidential tenure - in an interview with left-wing and Democrat-aligned <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/obama-on-his-legacy-trumps-win-and-the-path-forward-w452527" type="external">Rolling Stone</a>.</p>
<p>Obama bemoaned the fragmentation of the media landscape wrought by the rise of the internet and related technological innovations, calling for a “common set of facts” upon which all political and related information should be premised:</p>
<p>“Well, the most important thing that I'm focused on is how we create a common set of facts. That sounds kind of abstract. Another way of saying it is, how do we create a common story about where we are. The biggest challenge that I think we have right now in terms of this divide is that the country receives information from completely different sources. And it's getting worse. The whole movement away from curated journalism to Facebook pages, in which an article on climate change by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist looks pretty much as credible as an article written by a guy in his underwear in a basement, or worse. Or something written by the Koch brothers. People are no longer talking to each other; they're just occupying their different spheres. And in an Internet era where we still value a free press and we don’t want censorship of the Internet, that's a hard problem to solve. I think it's one that requires those who are controlling these media to think carefully about their responsibilities, and [whether there] are ways to create a better conversation. It requires better civics education among our kids so that we can sort through what's true and what's not. It's gonna require those of us who are interested in progressive causes figuring out how do we attract more eyeballs and make it more interesting and more entertaining and more persuasive.”</p>
<p>Americans lack the judgment to discern between accurate and inaccurate information, said Obama. Across his presidency, with a sharp amplification over the past year's election season, he has repeatedly criticized what he describes as a right-wing news media sphere pushing out distorted narratives that confuse and mislead naive Americans.</p>
<p>Ideological diversity within the news media landscape, said Obama, was preventing American coalescence around “progressive” values and narratives:</p>
<p>"The challenge is, the technology is moving so fast that it's less an issue of traditional media losing money. The New York Times is still making money. NPR is doing well. Yeah, it's a nonprofit, but it has a growing audience. The problem is segmentation. We were talking about the issue of a divided country. Good journalism continues to this day. There's great work done in Rolling Stone. The challenge is people are getting a hundred different visions of the world from a hundred different outlets or a thousand different outlets, and that is ramping up divisions. It's making people exaggerate or say what's most controversial or peddling in the most vicious of insults or lies, because that attracts eyeballs. And if we are gonna solve that, it's not going to be simply an issue of subsidizing or propping up traditional media; it's going to be figuring out how do we organize in a virtual world the same way we organize in the physical world. We have to come up with new models."</p>
<p>Obama also promised to continue political advocacy for "progressive" causes, focusing on political agitation to enlist young people:</p>
<p>"[After leading the White House]. I'm gonna be organizing my presidential center, which is gonna be focused on precisely this issue of how do we train and empower the next generation of leadership. How do we rethink our storytelling, the messaging and the use of technology and digital media, so that we can make a persuasive case across the country? And not just in San Francisco or Manhattan but everywhere, about why climate change matters or why issues of economic inequality have to be addressed. So I will continue to be very active, and Michelle is going to continue to be very active – and [on] the very thing that brought us here, which is our belief that when you work with people on the ground at a grassroots level, change happens. When people feel disconnected from the institutions of government, they can swing back and forth in all sorts of ways."</p>
<p>In explaining the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, Obama repeated his ongoing criticisms of Fox News speaking to the Midwestern "white working class:"</p>
<p>"Part of [why Donald Trump was elected] is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country."</p>
<p>David Remnick, the chief editor of left-wing magazine The New Yorker, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1NlhvRSM38" type="external">less than two weeks ago described</a> Obama as being “obsessed” with “fake news,” presumably a reference to dissident news outlets that reject the neo-Marxist consensus of the legacy establishment media:</p>
<p>“The thing that Obama obsessed on in the car was the media. Not the media bad, the New York Times failing or succeeding, or The New Yorker this or anything like that, but the fact that the old universe, the fact-based universe has broken down. It was collapsed… A discussion on Breitbart has the same veracity to its audience as a conversation on Charlie Rose. That’s a new universe.”</p>
<p>To Rolling Stone's credit, it acknowledges its role as a platform for left-wing Democrats in the vein of Obama. Jann S. Wenner, who conducted the interview, prefaced his article with commentary on the mutual affinity felt between Obama and the magazine's readership:</p>
<p>"Rolling Stone has had a wonderful relationship with Obama over the years. I first met him at the beginning of his 2008 campaign, when he came up to my office for dinner. We backed him when he was up and when he was down. He viewed Rolling Stone readers as part of his base. A year ago, we went to Alaska with him and toured the melting glaciers. With extraordinary pride, we watched him ride the wave of history."</p>
<p>Remnick and Obama shared a fear of the loosening stranglehold of the legacy establishment media over the dissemination and curation of information to the public.</p>
<p>Watch Remnick describe Obama's take on "fake news" below.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Obama Still Crying About Fox News And New Media | true | https://dailywire.com/news/11174/obama-still-crying-about-fox-news-and-new-media-robert-kraychik | 2016-11-29 | 0 |
<p>LYNCHBURG — More than 600 people gathered at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center for Virginia Baptists' MC2 Missions Connection Celebration, July 23-28, and were challenged by the conference's theme, “Take the Next Step,” to consider how they and their churches could move forward into new areas of mission service.</p>
<p>The Virginia Baptist Mission Board, Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia, RASNet, the Latino Network, and People of the Book Ministry worked together to organize the event, formerly called Family Missions Week. The new MC2 was designed to offer a wide variety of opportunities for people of all ages to learn about and experience missions.</p>
<p />
<p>Alice Rusher</p>
<p>Teresa McClensky of Victoria Baptist Church in Victoria teaches a children's class a “sticky sticks” routine.</p>
<p>Each morning, while children from preschool to seventh grade were involved in mission learning, many of the youth and adults traveled throughout the Lynchburg area to minister in various mission settings, such as an adult care center, a home for girls, a juvenile detention center, children's sports camps, crisis pregnancy centers, and various backyard Bible clubs and construction mission locations. Others remained at Eagle Eyrie, where they rehearsed drama and music for worship, helped with landscaping projects, created banners, and knitted quilts and afghans for High Hills Baptist Church in Jarratt to use in their ministry to nursing home residents and women at a crisis pregnancy center.</p>
<p>As part of MC2, a group of volunteers participated in a Blitz Build with Greater Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity (see article on page 3). Skill equipping sessions on a variety of topics were also offered, as well as training for Virginia Baptist disaster relief volunteers and for those who minister to children experiencing stress from various traumas in their lives.</p>
<p>The afternoons were free for recreation and fellowship activities, and in the evenings everyone gathered for a worship service together. The keynote storyteller in the Friday evening and Saturday morning worship services was Denton Lotz, recently-retired general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, who challenged the audience with stories of faithful Christian witness from around the world.</p>
<p />
<p>Alice Rusher</p>
<p>Dot Halla member of High Hills Baptist Church in Jarratt, has attended Family Missions Week/MC2 for the past 49 years.</p>
<p>Several Virginia Baptist international mission partners were represented at the conference. Credo Mangayi, director of the Baptist Union of South Africa's Deeds of Love Ministry, led a morning Bible study for adults. And Guiseppe Miglio, pastor of Pordenone (Italy) Baptist Church and president of the Italian Baptist pastors association, brought a group of 20 youth and their leaders to MC2 as part of Virginia Baptists' partnership with the Italian Baptist Union.</p>
<p>Both Mangayi and Miglio also spoke to various children's and adult groups about their ministries and about opportunities for Virginia Baptists to work with them in partnership missions. Participants also heard from Virginia Baptists' Latino Ministries Kingdom Advance Ambassador Greg Smith, who works with LUCHA Ministries Inc., a Christian community-based outreach with and among Hispanics in the greater Fredericksburg area, and from Kent and Ann Brown, members of First Baptist Church in Gretna, who spoke about mission trips that they have taken to India.</p>
<p>By the end of the week, MC2 participants had discovered new possibilities for ministry in their own communities and had developed new relationships with others.</p>
<p>“I always thought of missions as going overseas somewhere,” said Linda Baird, a member of Mulberry Grove Baptist Church in Buckingham, “but this week I've learned that there's a lot you can do right in your local area.” Baird and other members from her church participated in High Hills Baptist's knitting project at MC2 and now hope to organize a similar ministry at Mulberry Grove.</p>
<p />
<p>Alice Rusher</p>
<p>A young artist tries his hand at creating a masterpiece.</p>
<p>The Italian youth especially enjoyed the mission service opportunities and the worship experiences, in which they were invited to participate by sharing some songs. But according to Miglio, all of these activities were part of a larger goal. “They know they are here for one reason,” he said, “because we want to build a relationship with young people from the U.S.A., from Virginia Baptist churches.”</p>
<p>And that relationship blossomed, despite the language barrier. “Everyone at MC2 — the children, youth, and adults — all developed a real sense of community during the week,” said Diane Smith, children's ministry strategist for the VBMB.</p>
<p>Rebekah Koch, a youth from Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, was also excited about the relationships she developed with other youth. “This week was a great experience for me,” she said. “I felt as though everyone in my youth group, site group, and even some of the Italians grew closer together and became good friends.”</p>
<p>Smith noted that the relationships grow year after year. “The children's teachers were thrilled to see boys and girls they knew from previous years, and they're already looking forward to next year's MC2 to watch how those children continue to grow and develop.” Recalling a new friend from another church who called her name and came over for a hug before leaving, Koch said, “I hope to see them again next year.”</p>
<p>The 2008 MC2 Mission Connection Celebration will be held July 14-19 at Eagle Eyrie.</p> | MC2 participants ready to take the next step in mission service | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/mc2participantsreadytotakethenextstepinmissionservice/ | 3 |
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<p>Second only to Miami-Dade, Broward is the biggest county in the crucial swing state of Florida. And like Miami-Dade, registered Republicans are a vanishing species. By a 2-to-1 ratio of 508,000 to 252,000, Democrats enjoy a massive advantage over the GOP.</p>
<p>Currently, election supervisor Dr. Brenda Snipes, a Democrat originally appointed by — get this — Jeb Bush, is fighting <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-broward-voter-lists-challenged-federal-court-20170724-story.html" type="external">a federal lawsuit</a> over the county's apparent refusal to clean up its voter rolls. The suit, filed by the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) claims that their own audit shows that Broward County "has had more voters on its rolls than eligible voting-age residents, or at the very least, that it has close to a 100 percent voter registration[.]"</p>
<p>In other words, when people die, are convicted of a felony, move elsewhere, or file false registration forms, nothing or not enough is being done to remove them from the voter rolls. What this means is that if this person, or someone claiming to be this person, walks in to vote, the fact that they are on the rolls makes it next to impossible to stop them from casting an illegal vote.</p>
<p>Anyone who lived through the 2000 presidential recount does not need me to explain how just a few hundred votes can change the outcome of everything, especially in Florida.</p>
<p>For her part, Snipes claims she has been cleaning up the voter rolls and even admits that the lawsuit has prompted her to do a better job. But the most important part of the Sun Sentinel story is, naturally, buried under a dozen or so paragraphs, the part where Snipes admits under oath that people are voting illegally in Broward County.</p>
<p>"Some of them are not eligible to vote and they slip through," Snipes said.</p>
<p>And there you have it… In the very state where just 17 years ago the American presidency was decided by a mere 537 votes, the Supervisor of Elections admits that illegal voting takes place.</p>
<p>Later in her testimony, Snipes tried to clean up her mess with this non sequitur, “When it does happen, we try to jump on it right away.”</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but what does that even mean? You have just said that those who vote illegally "slip through." How can you "jump on it right away" after they have already "slipped through" and cast an illegal ballot that almost certainly benefited a Democrat?</p>
<p>If the local media is burying this bombshell, you can only imagine the radio silence in the national media.</p>
<p>Cover up. Cover up. Cover up.</p>
<p>Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC" type="external">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook Page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Additional Daily Wire reading:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Nearly 2 Million Non-Citizen Hispanics Registered to Vote</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">WaPo Publishes Study That Claims Millions of Illegal Aliens Vote</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Study Shows Up To 5.7 Million Illegals Voted In Presidential Election</a></p> | Swing State BOMBSHELL: Democrat Election Official Admits Illegal Votes 'Slip Through' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/19257/swing-state-bombshell-democrat-election-official-john-nolte | 2017-08-02 | 0 |
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<p>“I’m optimistic, cautiously optimistic, that the new year will bring a renewed spirit of cooperation to this chamber,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in the first remarks of the year on the Senate floor.</p>
<p>Within moments, he pivoted, accusing Republicans of “never ending obstruction” to President Barack Obama’s proposals over the past five years.</p>
<p>A test vote on the unemployment bill – the year’s first showdown – was postponed at the last minute until this morning at the behest of Republicans, who noted that more than a dozen lawmakers had been unable to return to Washington because of bad weather.</p>
<p />
<p>A report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the federal Labor Department said the average benefit paid in New Mexico is $306 per week.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The council and Labor Department estimate that if extended benefits were to continue through 2014, 25,500 New Mexico residents would receive them at some point during the year.</p>
<p>Between January 2008 and September 2013, 97,328 workers in New Mexico received extended unemployment compensation benefits.</p>
<p>According to the report, unemployment benefits have been extended in states with high and rising unemployment rates since 1972 through a joint state and federal program.</p>
<p>In 2009, Congress voted to fund the extended benefits 100 percent with federal dollars. The authorization for the program expired Dec. 31, cutting off payments to 1.3 million people nationwide.</p>
<p>Typically, unemployed workers receive jobless benefits for 26 weeks, which in a normal economy is enough time to find work, according to the report. The extended-benefit program allowed payment up to 47 additional weeks, depending on the unemployment rate at the time the worker filed for unemployment compensation.</p>
<p>There were 56,104 unemployed workers in New Mexico as of November, the most recent month for which data are available. That was down from 58,636 workers in November 2012.</p>
<p>The number of unemployed declined in 22 of New Mexico’s 33 counties in that 12-month period.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The largest number of jobless workers – 18,125 – are in Bernalillo County, where the November unemployment rate was 6 percent. That’s down from 19,486 in November 2012.</p>
<p>The state’s highest unemployment rate is 15.7 percent in Luna County, followed by Mora County at 13.8 percent and Taos County at 8.8 percent.</p>
<p>The lowest unemployment rates are 3.5 percent in Lea County and 3.6 percent in Eddy, Los Alamos and Harding counties.</p>
<p>Even then the rhetoric was heated. “It’s transparent this is a political exercise,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, moments before Reid agreed to the delay.</p>
<p>Democratic supporters of the three-month extension of jobless benefits said they were close to the 60 votes needed to advance the White House-backed bill. Their chances hinged on securing backing from at least four Republicans in addition to Sen. Dean Heller of high-unemployment Nevada, a co-sponsor.</p>
<p>The bill would restore between 14 weeks and 47 weeks of benefits to an estimated 1.3 million long-term jobless affected when the program expired on Dec. 28. Payments, which average about $256 weekly, will be cut off to thousands more in the coming weeks as their initial 28 weeks’ worth of unemployment benefits expire.</p>
<p>The bill is the first on the Senate’s agenda for the year and part of a heaping portion of leftovers from 2013.</p>
<p>House and Senate lawmakers are negotiating privately over legislation to keep the government operating normally when current funding expires Jan. 15. Agreement is expected quickly, since the two sides and the White House reached agreement on an overall spending cap before adjourning for the holidays.</p>
<p>A separate set of talks is on legislation to replace expired farm and feeding programs. And just ahead is a requirement to raise the nation’s debt limit.</p>
<p>The House is scheduled to return from its year-end break today, and already, majority Republicans have served notice they will continue to challenge Democrats over the health care program known as Obamacare.</p>
<p>In a memo to the rank and file last week, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said there would be a vote quickly on legislation requiring “prompt notification in the event of a breach involving personal information.”</p>
<p>The health care law is expected to be a central issue in next fall’s election with control of the House and Senate at stake, and Democrats were on the defensive at the end of last year when a major expansion of the program had a debut that was widely panned by lawmakers in both parties and by Obama himself.</p>
<p>The political stakes were immediately on display as lawmakers headed back to the Capitol.</p>
<p>The Senate Democrats’ campaign organization issued a statement predicting, “nearly every Republican Senate candidate in the country will align themselves with the tea party to block the renewal of long-term unemployment benefits, and American families have only begun to feel the painful consequences.”</p>
<p>House Republicans focused their energy elsewhere.</p>
<p>They unveiled a mock Obamacare campaign pledge and challenged Democratic lawmakers to sign it.</p>
<p>“The law may be incredibly unpopular as people in my district are kicked off health care and watch as their premiums and costs skyrocket, but I still support this law – and commit that I will continue to support it through Election Day,” it says.</p>
<p>In the Senate, Democrats said the unemployment legislation would benefit the jobless and the national economy as well.</p>
<p>“These are people who want to work, but they need some help,” Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said of the men and women who have been out of work longer than 26 or 28 weeks. Many, he said, are middle-class, middle-aged people who never thought they would wind up in the situation in which they find themselves.</p>
<p>Reid said that as the unemployed spend the funds they receive, the overall economy grows by $1.50 for every $1 in benefits.</p>
<p>In his remarks, Heller said he would have preferred to have paid for the benefits “in a manner that does not burden our nation with more debt.” At the same time, he said, “for these benefits to simply vanish without giving families the time to plan … is just not right.”</p>
<p>Republicans appeared split into three camps: Heller and an unknown number of others; a group that is willing to renew the benefits, but insists that the $6.4 billion cost be paid for; and a third group opposed under any circumstances.</p>
<p>The national unemployment rate in November was 7 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 21 states and the District of Columbia had joblessness of 7 percent or more, topped by Nevada and Rhode Island, each with 9 percent.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Unemployment bill first for Senate to consider in 2014 | false | https://abqjournal.com/332204/unemployment-bill-first-in-2014-2.html | 2 |
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<p>MILAN (AP) — Napoli is hitting top form at precisely the right time of the season.</p>
<p>After a slump in which the team failed to win five straight matches in Serie A and got knocked out of the Italian Cup, Napoli is now on a run of three consecutive wins, scoring 10 goals in the process and conceding only one.</p>
<p>Two 3-0 wins in the league, either side of an impressive 4-1 victory at Wolfsburg in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals, has seen it close in on Roma and Lazio in the battle for Champions League places.</p>
<p>Key to its resurgence has been the form of midfielder and captain Marek Hamsik, who is showing signs of being back to his best after a poor start to the season.</p>
<p>"A season is made up of 60 matches, it's impossible to be on top form always but I want to make as few mistakes as possible," said Hamsik, who scored twice in Germany. "Winning is not down to one person but to all 11 on the pitch. Of course I want to extend my positive run for as long as possible."</p>
<p>Napoli is attempting to win only its second European trophy, after Diego Maradona led the southern club to what was then known as the UEFA Cup in 1989. The Argentine could be in the stands on Thursday because he is in Italy, where he was meeting the pope at the Vatican on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Also, defending champion Sevilla travels to 2008 winner Zenit St. Petersburg, with the Spanish side protecting a 2-1 win. The other two quarterfinal matches are close after Dynamo Kiev and Fiorentina finished 1-1, and Brugge and Dnipro ended goalless.</p>
<p>Here are a few things to know about Thursday's matches:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WOLFSBURG WOES</p>
<p>Wolfsburg's task of overcoming a three-goal deficit has been made even more difficult because the Bundesliga club will be without midfielder Kevin de Bruyne and forward Andre Schuerrle.</p>
<p>De Bruyne has 10 goals and 18 assists, the best combined points in the Bundesliga, but will be missing because of a foot injury. Schuerrle, who is slowing getting into form after his transfer from Chelsea, has a shoulder injury.</p>
<p>Wolfsburg seems to be still recovering from the 4-1 rout at home. It was held to a 1-1 draw by Schalke in the Bundesliga.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WILLING CHAMPIONS</p>
<p>Sevilla flew to St. Petersburg on Tuesday, aiming to emulate the team's achievements there nine years ago.</p>
<p>On that occasion, Sevilla was defending a 4-1 first leg win, and held Zenit to a hard-fought 1-1 draw to advance to the Europa League semifinals.</p>
<p>This time, Sevilla is defending a 2-1 win with the semifinals once more in sight.</p>
<p>Sevilla coach Unai Emery took his team to the northern Russian city early in a bid to lessen fatigue, given Sevilla's heavy match load.</p>
<p>So far, Sevilla has won 32 matches, drawn eight and lost 10 since clinching the Europa League title against Juventus.</p>
<p>Also, the team is aware that Russia has been a tough place for Sevilla, coming away with only one win from six visits.</p>
<p>"We have traveled with the conviction of knowing that we are the champions, although we're sure it's going to be a difficult match for us," Sevilla president Jose Castro said. "It's possible they might beat us in the size of their budget, and we know we'll face a harsh environment, but they're not going to beat our conviction and sheer will to win."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>LUCKY 200?</p>
<p>While Napoli has been on a roll, Serie A rival Fiorentina is going through a miserable run.</p>
<p>The Tuscan side has lost its past two Serie A matches and been knocked out of the Italian Cup, as well as being held to a 1-1 draw in Kiev.</p>
<p>However, it can take heart from the fact that it has progressed six of the eight times it has played at home in European competition after drawing the first leg 1-1. Barcelona (in the 1997 Cup Winners' Cup) and Juventus (in last year's competition) were the only sides to knock them out.</p>
<p>It will be coach Vincenzo Montella's 200th game in charge of Fiorentina. His record is 94 wins, 51 draws and 54 losses.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Sports Writer Nesha Starcevic in Frankfurt and Associated Press writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.</p>
<p>MILAN (AP) — Napoli is hitting top form at precisely the right time of the season.</p>
<p>After a slump in which the team failed to win five straight matches in Serie A and got knocked out of the Italian Cup, Napoli is now on a run of three consecutive wins, scoring 10 goals in the process and conceding only one.</p>
<p>Two 3-0 wins in the league, either side of an impressive 4-1 victory at Wolfsburg in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals, has seen it close in on Roma and Lazio in the battle for Champions League places.</p>
<p>Key to its resurgence has been the form of midfielder and captain Marek Hamsik, who is showing signs of being back to his best after a poor start to the season.</p>
<p>"A season is made up of 60 matches, it's impossible to be on top form always but I want to make as few mistakes as possible," said Hamsik, who scored twice in Germany. "Winning is not down to one person but to all 11 on the pitch. Of course I want to extend my positive run for as long as possible."</p>
<p>Napoli is attempting to win only its second European trophy, after Diego Maradona led the southern club to what was then known as the UEFA Cup in 1989. The Argentine could be in the stands on Thursday because he is in Italy, where he was meeting the pope at the Vatican on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Also, defending champion Sevilla travels to 2008 winner Zenit St. Petersburg, with the Spanish side protecting a 2-1 win. The other two quarterfinal matches are close after Dynamo Kiev and Fiorentina finished 1-1, and Brugge and Dnipro ended goalless.</p>
<p>Here are a few things to know about Thursday's matches:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WOLFSBURG WOES</p>
<p>Wolfsburg's task of overcoming a three-goal deficit has been made even more difficult because the Bundesliga club will be without midfielder Kevin de Bruyne and forward Andre Schuerrle.</p>
<p>De Bruyne has 10 goals and 18 assists, the best combined points in the Bundesliga, but will be missing because of a foot injury. Schuerrle, who is slowing getting into form after his transfer from Chelsea, has a shoulder injury.</p>
<p>Wolfsburg seems to be still recovering from the 4-1 rout at home. It was held to a 1-1 draw by Schalke in the Bundesliga.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WILLING CHAMPIONS</p>
<p>Sevilla flew to St. Petersburg on Tuesday, aiming to emulate the team's achievements there nine years ago.</p>
<p>On that occasion, Sevilla was defending a 4-1 first leg win, and held Zenit to a hard-fought 1-1 draw to advance to the Europa League semifinals.</p>
<p>This time, Sevilla is defending a 2-1 win with the semifinals once more in sight.</p>
<p>Sevilla coach Unai Emery took his team to the northern Russian city early in a bid to lessen fatigue, given Sevilla's heavy match load.</p>
<p>So far, Sevilla has won 32 matches, drawn eight and lost 10 since clinching the Europa League title against Juventus.</p>
<p>Also, the team is aware that Russia has been a tough place for Sevilla, coming away with only one win from six visits.</p>
<p>"We have traveled with the conviction of knowing that we are the champions, although we're sure it's going to be a difficult match for us," Sevilla president Jose Castro said. "It's possible they might beat us in the size of their budget, and we know we'll face a harsh environment, but they're not going to beat our conviction and sheer will to win."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>LUCKY 200?</p>
<p>While Napoli has been on a roll, Serie A rival Fiorentina is going through a miserable run.</p>
<p>The Tuscan side has lost its past two Serie A matches and been knocked out of the Italian Cup, as well as being held to a 1-1 draw in Kiev.</p>
<p>However, it can take heart from the fact that it has progressed six of the eight times it has played at home in European competition after drawing the first leg 1-1. Barcelona (in the 1997 Cup Winners' Cup) and Juventus (in last year's competition) were the only sides to knock them out.</p>
<p>It will be coach Vincenzo Montella's 200th game in charge of Fiorentina. His record is 94 wins, 51 draws and 54 losses.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Sports Writer Nesha Starcevic in Frankfurt and Associated Press writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.</p> | Napoli hitting form at the right time at home and in Europe | false | https://apnews.com/amp/8d926c8a28da48e6b076ce9060e21311 | 2015-04-22 | 2 |
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<p>There's only one word to describe Josh Walker's performance at Fresno State Friday night: dominating.</p>
<p>The junior out of Rio Rancho struck out six and retired the final 16 batters he faced on his way to his first career shutout as the 16th-ranked Lobos dominated the Bulldogs, 9-0.</p>
<p>On Monday, Walker was named a Mountain West Conference's Co-Pitcher of the Week.</p>
<p>"Josh was perfect," UNM head coach&#160;Ray Birmingham&#160;said. "He threw a great game. He was absolutely locked in."</p>
<p>The Bulldogs managed to get only one runner to second base as Walker did not allow a base runner after the fourth inning as he moved his record to 9-0.</p>
<p>The win was UNM's 13th straight in conference play, extending their Mountain West record. They beat the Bulldogs, 7-2, Saturday to make it 14 in a row, and tying the school record for conference wins (with 22), then lost Sunday's finale, 9-8.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"Every pitcher they threw was at 92-95 (mph)," Birmingham said of Friday's contest. "We made adjustment after adjustment. This was a great team win."</p>
<p>In 2012, Walker was a staple of UNM's weekend rotation, but he began 2013 as the Lobos' closer. After posting an 8-0 record with seven saves, he was moved to the rotation to help stabilize it as UNM looks toward postseason play.</p>
<p>He did more than stabilize Friday in what was UNM's third shutout win of the season.</p>
<p>He faced only two batters over the minimum, recorded 11 groundball outs and lowered his ERA to 3.38. He is now 17-3 in his career, and his .850 winning percentage is the all-time high for any Lobo with at least 15 decisions.</p>
<p>The Lobos close out the regular season this weekend at San Diego State, where Walker likely will get another start on the hill.</p> | Former Ram Walker is co-Pitcher of Week | false | https://abqjournal.com/199488/former-ram-walker-is-co-pitcher-of-week.html | 2013-05-15 | 2 |
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati police officer has pleaded guilty to a probation violation of drinking alcohol during firearms training at a gun range.</p>
<p>WXIX-TV reports the judge told 46-year-old Officer David Jenkins “you need to get a handle on it,” before sentencing him Monday to continue his probation, undergo an alcohol treatment program and wear an alcohol monitoring device.</p>
<p>Court records show Jenkins had a .053 blood alcohol level at the training Dec. 20. He was on probation at the time for a disorderly conduct conviction.</p>
<p>He pleaded guilty to the charge after his arrested in March for carrying an AR-15 rifle and acting as a police officer while off duty and drunk.</p>
<p>Police union President Sgt. Dan Hils said Monday Jenkins is “a good person who is struggling.”</p>
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati police officer has pleaded guilty to a probation violation of drinking alcohol during firearms training at a gun range.</p>
<p>WXIX-TV reports the judge told 46-year-old Officer David Jenkins “you need to get a handle on it,” before sentencing him Monday to continue his probation, undergo an alcohol treatment program and wear an alcohol monitoring device.</p>
<p>Court records show Jenkins had a .053 blood alcohol level at the training Dec. 20. He was on probation at the time for a disorderly conduct conviction.</p>
<p>He pleaded guilty to the charge after his arrested in March for carrying an AR-15 rifle and acting as a police officer while off duty and drunk.</p>
<p>Police union President Sgt. Dan Hils said Monday Jenkins is “a good person who is struggling.”</p> | Police officer sentenced for drinking alcohol at gun range | false | https://apnews.com/cdcefd0f78b84ded80fdc5f03f6494a5 | 2018-01-09 | 2 |
<p>NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — Micah Seaborn scored 13 points and Monmouth topped Niagara 56-42 on Sunday.</p>
<p>Seaborn was 4 of 9 from the floor with two 3-pointers for Monmouth (5-3, 1-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference). Deon Jones scored 11 points with six rebounds.</p>
<p>Niagara (3-6, 1-1) was led by Emile Blackman with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting.</p>
<p>Neither team did well beyond the arc — Monmouth was 3 of 16, Niagara went 4 for 24.</p>
<p>Monmouth scored the first eight points of the game and led 14-3 midway through the first half. Matt Scott's jumper drew Niagara to within six, but Monmouth outscored its host 13-7 the rest of the half and led 27-15 at the break.</p>
<p>The teams picked up the pace in the second half, but Niagara was unable to close the gap.</p>
<p>NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — Micah Seaborn scored 13 points and Monmouth topped Niagara 56-42 on Sunday.</p>
<p>Seaborn was 4 of 9 from the floor with two 3-pointers for Monmouth (5-3, 1-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference). Deon Jones scored 11 points with six rebounds.</p>
<p>Niagara (3-6, 1-1) was led by Emile Blackman with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting.</p>
<p>Neither team did well beyond the arc — Monmouth was 3 of 16, Niagara went 4 for 24.</p>
<p>Monmouth scored the first eight points of the game and led 14-3 midway through the first half. Matt Scott's jumper drew Niagara to within six, but Monmouth outscored its host 13-7 the rest of the half and led 27-15 at the break.</p>
<p>The teams picked up the pace in the second half, but Niagara was unable to close the gap.</p> | Monmouth tops Niagara 56-42 | false | https://apnews.com/amp/1a600123bbc54915a183de045bcf8cf3 | 2015-12-06 | 2 |
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<p>In December 2015, IUPAC made the first of several broadcasts: Four elements, numbered 113, 115, 117 and 118, met the criteria for inclusion in the periodic table. The seventh, bottom row of the periodic table was complete. In June, IUPAC announced the tentative names. And on Nov. 28, after a five-month waiting period during which IUPAC accepted public comments, the organization released an updated periodic table. The June names had passed muster, and are set to be ratified at the organization’s meeting in July 2017.</p>
<p>To be clear, the general public never had a shot at naming the elements directly, sparing everyone the whimsy of Elementally McElementalface-ium. (And, fitting as a literal heavy metal tribute to Motörhead musician Lemmy Kilmister would be, lemmium’s Change.org petition did not pan out.)</p>
<p>Still, a few people tried to sway IUPAC. “Overall, it was a real pleasure to realize that so many people are interested in the naming of the new elements, including high-school students, making essays about possible names and telling how proud they were to have been able to participate in the discussions,” Jan Reedijk, president of IUPAC’s Inorganic Chemistry Division, said in a statement Wednesday. “For now, we can all cherish our periodic table completed down to the seventh row.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>From the official IUPAC announcement, the elements are:</p>
<p>– Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113;</p>
<p>– Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115;</p>
<p>– Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117; and</p>
<p>– Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118.</p>
<p>In keeping with IUPAC standards, the scientists who discovered the elements proposed the accepted names. There are some ground rules: the names must refer to a scientist, mythology, substance, elemental property or place. Three of the names – Tennessine (Tennessee), Nihonium (Japan) and Moscovium (Moscow) – reflect where the scientists’ institutions were located, as The Washington Post reported in June. Oganesson is in honor of Yuri Oganessian, a nuclear physics professor at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.</p>
<p>Nihonium was the first element to be given a name with Japanese origin. “The periodic table is a great legacy in chemistry. I’m filled with deep emotion that there is an element with a Japanese name,” Kyushu University chemist Kosuke Morita, who led the discovery of nihonium, said in a conference on Thursday according to the Japan Times.</p>
<p>With large numbers of protons in their nuclei – nihonium, as its atomic number indicates, has 113 protons – the elements are considered superheavy and unstable. They exist only in laboratories for a few fractions of a second. Nihonium was first synthesized in 2004, by bashing zinc ions with the element bismuth. It took years of work for the Japanese researchers to confirm its existence, recreating the element in 2005 and again in 2012.</p>
<p>elements</p> | Four new elements added to periodic table have formal names | false | https://abqjournal.com/899446/four-new-elements-added-to-periodic-table-have-formal-names.html | 2 |
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore.
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<p />In the leadup to the Canadian elections the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois have been waging a campaign against Muslim women who wear the niqab. The recent Islamophobic and racist attacks perpetrated against two Muslim women in niqab, one in Montreal and the other in Toronto within a period of one week is cited as one of the most negative impacts of such campaigns. Further, Harper's Conservative government is now promising to create a tip line for Canadians to call in if they observe what they are calling barbaric cultural practices. But what does that mean? And is the politicization of the veil a distraction camouflaging the real issues in the campaign?
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<p />Now joining me to discuss all of this is Harsha Walia. Harsha is joining us from Vancouver. She is a social justice activist, journalist, and co-founder of Vancouver chapter of No One Is Illegal. She is also the author of the book Undoing Border Imperialism. Harsha, thank you so much for joining us.
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<p />HARSHA WALIA: Thank you for having me.
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<p />PERIES: Harsha, raising fear in society has the effect of social contraction as opposed to openness and tolerance. Conservatives across Canada are relying on fearmongering as an election strategy. That is clear, of course, from the various ad campaigns that are on television right now. But is that really working?
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<p />WALIA: Well I mean, it's hard to say. Because I think especially in the post-9/11 climate we have to come to terms with the fact that fear has actually been used in every single election campaign, including by the Liberals right after 9/11 as well as the Conservatives. I mean, I think a decade into the war on terror, I think people are able to see what fear is, right, that it is a tool to have to contract our ability to have politically engaged conversations. But I think fear and its roots in racism has often won elections. Whether or not it wins this one I don't know. But it has most certainly won elections in the past, both in the United States as well as in Europe.
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<p />Fearmongering, whether it's fear of Muslims and Islamophobia or fear of migrants and refugees has often been the basis of election campaigns. And that's because you can't vote in [inaud.] racism, right. It's a function and a product of the society that we live in. And so certainly the Conservative party in particular has built a base amongst racists and has built a base against populism, a particular kind of racist populism. And this is not uncommon, we've also seen this in parts of Europe as well. And so in that sense I don't think it should surprise anybody, and nor is it unique to the Tories that racism is a tool within which to whip up a frenzy and to get political votes.
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<p />PERIES: So Harsha, as you note in your article titled Marked Bodies: Will racism win the election for Harper, the term 'barbaric cultural practices' has been used before. It's been in Canada's citizenship guide, you say, in 2009 which states: In Canada, men and women are equal under the law. Canada's openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, honor killings, female genital mutilation, or other gender-based violence. So this all sounds good. What is your contention with that being in the Canada citizenship guide? After all, it's a warning to new immigrants that these practices are illegal in Canada.
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<p />WALIA: Yeah. I think the ways in which 'barbaric cultural practices' has been framed is one that is not actually about violence against women. It's not about dealing with patriarchy. It's about racism, and it's about positioning certain [inaud.] as barbaric and their practices as ones that are outside to Canada. And you know, I think if we want to talk about barbaric cultural practices we should name patriarchy in itself [inaud.] you know, violence against women is a barbaric cultural practice in its universal forms.
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<p />But the ways in which barbaric cultural practice is named is very much to suggest that violence against women is an import, as if violence against women does not happen against women in Canada, especially indigenous women living in Canada. But all women in Canada deal with the reality of violence against women. So it takes [violence against women] and frames it as a kind of foreign import, as not Canadian. So it serves both to invisibilize the violence against women happening here in Canada and also to exceptionalize and exaggerate the forms of violence that communities that are cast as non-Canadian, particularly Muslim communities, apparently bring with them.
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<p />The barbaric cultural practices act and the discourse of barbaric cultural practices goes alongside a really heightened focus on things like, [inaud.] honor crimes despite the fact that they're not very common in Canada. And of course even [inaud.] contested. And so I would argue that barbaric cultural practices does claim to actually deal with violence against women [inaud.]. Rather what it does is to make women more vulnerable and subject to racial profiling and racism. And we see that. We see that the barbaric cultural practices act, which is actually legislation. A number of organizations who work with women on the ground say that it makes women much more vulnerable. We have of course the examples of the two Muslim women, as you mentioned, who have been attacked as a result of this discourse. So it's making Muslim women in particular much more visible and subject to violence against them.
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<p />PERIES: And also less likely to call in for assistance or the law if they think their loved ones or their family members are going to be taken away and charged. So is any of the other parties, opposition parties, taking on this kind of campaign?
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<p />WALIA: No. I mean, I think the other opposition parties have definitely spoken out against the really disgusting use of barbaric cultural practices as a frame. But I also think this is in the context of elections, right. We have to look longer. Like I said, when barbaric cultural practices was being introduced into the citizenship act, it did not get any attention from other political parties. There's been a slough of legislation passed, there's been a lot of focus right now on the barbaric cultural practices tip line. But you know, Canada already had tip lines in place against immigrants, one ostensibly against immigration fraud, once against non-citizens. And these tip lines did not receive vocal opposition by other political parties as well.
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<p />So I think it's important not just to look at what politicians are saying during the election period, but to look at what their record has been over a period of time. And over a period of time, the racist legislation that has been passed down by this current government has been supported by other parties. And also prior to this government the Liberal government passed down a series of horrific policies, right, including anti-terror legislation that was brought in by the Liberals. So I think [they'll] have to be attuned to that history.
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<p />PERIES: Harsha Walia, thank you so much for joining us today.
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<p />WALIA: Thank you.
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<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Will Islamophobia and Racism Influence Canadian Election? | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D14895 | 2015-10-15 | 4 |
<p>Illustration By: Jeffrey Decoster&lt;br&gt;Map by Baker Vail</p>
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<p>The red dirt of the jungle meets a paved road on the outskirts of Ebebiyin, where a national celebration is about to begin. Women are singing and swaying in an African rhythm that is hard to resist, even though their lyrics are not of a can’t-stop-dancing variety: “We await you, Mr. President,” they sing in Fang, the main language in Equatorial Guinea. “We are happy to see you; you are the people’s president.” In the distance, a cloud of Martian dust heralds the arrival of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.</p>
<p>The president is accompanied by 40 vehicles and enough firepower to start a small war. In the lead are army-green trucks, with soldiers clad in black ninja outfits. Because the president doesn’t entirely trust his military, the jeeps in front of his Lexus SUV bear his Moroccan security guards, many of them perched on the running boards, clutching Heckler &amp; Koch assault rifles as they scan the horizon.</p>
<p>The motorcade halts at the edge of the town and its chickens-in-the-road squalor. Obiang strolls up the street, shaking hands with people who line the uneven sidewalks, many clad in T-shirts and dresses bearing his image. His bearing is regal. If he has any anxiety because of a recent coup attempt, which involved a gang of couldn’t-shoot-straight mercenaries from South Africa and Britain (allegedly financed by the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), he does not betray it. And if his mind is troubled by a recent U.S. Senate investigation detailing how he siphoned millions from his country’s treasury with the help of Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., and how he and members of his inner circle extracted large and unorthodox payments from American oil companies, that, too, does not show.</p>
<p>Obiang has traveled to Equatorial Guinea’s mainland from his palace on the island capital of Malabo to celebrate the 36th anniversary of independence from Spain. The three-day gala is replete with references to the 1979 overthrow of Francisco Macias Nguema, the nation’s first dictator. Macias, who once tortured and killed political opponents in a soccer stadium, drowning out their screams by playing “Those Were the Days” on the loudspeakers, was ousted and executed in a coup led by a senior military aide who was also his nephew — Teodoro Obiang.</p>
<p>For “El Libertador,” as Obiang allows himself to be called, the highlight of the October celebration is a parade down Ebebiyin’s finest stretch of asphalt. About a hundred goose-stepping soldiers lead the way, and through bouts of equatorial heat and showers, delegations from seemingly every town and organization in the nation march by with banners saluting the president and ruling party.</p>
<p>The heat, the soldiers, the jungle, the out-of-tune band — I was starting to feel I had fallen into a tin-pot time warp. Then I noticed the American flags. These were carried by a delegation from Mobil Equatorial Guinea, Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. They also carried white Exxon flags and placards bearing ExxonMobil’s name. Behind them came delegations with signs announcing Halliburton, ChevronTexaco, Marathon Oil.</p>
<p>In the past few years, Equatorial Guinea, population 500,000, has become the third-largest oil exporter in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria and Angola. Per capita, it is one of the richest countries on the continent; rated by how much money ends up in the pockets of people not related to the president, it remains one of the poorest. Oil is the reason the desperate-looking cafés and shops in Ebebiyin use ExxonMobil signs as decorations. It is why, although his regime once sent death threats to the U.S. ambassador, Obiang now meets with senior administration officials and even with President Bush. And it’s why no one spoke out as Obiang treated his nation’s treasury as his own private bank account.</p>
<p>Equatorial Guinea sometimes seems a parody of an oil kleptocracy — a Blazing Saddles of the world of petroleum. Yet it has emerged as an all-too-real example of how a dictator, awash in petrodollars, enriches himself and his family while starving his people. His conduct has been aided by American companies: As detailed in Senate and Treasury Department documents, Riggs Bank helped Obiang shuttle millions into offshore accounts. Oil companies, meanwhile, made payments to his regime that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now scrutinizing under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.</p>
<p>If America’s interest in foreign countries were predicated on human rights, Equatorial Guinea would have seized our attention long before its 1995 oil boom. Francisco Macias Nguema, whose self-bestowed titles included “Leader of Steel,” “The Sole Miracle of Equatorial Guinea,” and, of course, “President for Life,” was a morph of Idi Amin and Pol Pot. He killed or forced into exile nearly a third of the population, decimating in particular the small educated class. Some of his victims were crucified on the road leading to the airport. It was one of the 20th century’s most brutal genocides, but no foreign power except for Equatorial Guinea’s former colonial ruler paid attention to it, and the fascist regime of Spain’s Francisco Franco was not overly troubled by human rights abuses. Obiang’s coup was a welcome event, and his rule has not been nearly as ruthless as his uncle’s. Of course,that’s not much of an achievement.</p>
<p>Recent State Department reports define Equatorial Guinea as a nominal democracy but note that “in practice power is exercised by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.” In the latest election, Obiang was reelected with 97 percent of the vote in an election “marred by extensive fraud and intimidation.” “Corruption among officials is widespread,” one report adds; the distribution of oil revenues, meanwhile, has “lacked transparency despite repeated calls from international financial institutions and citizens for greater financial openness.” And finally, “There is little evidence that the country’s oil wealth is being devoted to the public good.”</p>
<p>Human rights abuses continue unchecked. An oil company employee was recently beaten unconscious by gendarmes when he refused to pay a bribe. In 2002, more than a dozen security officials at the airport in Bata, the country’s commercial center, were arrested after they allowed an opposition leader to board a plane for Gabon. If you happen to be a member of the opposition, or even a suspected member of the opposition, you live precariously.</p>
<p>For an intimate portrait of what “torture” and “abuse” mean in the context of Equatorial Guinea, I consulted Tropical Gangsters by Robert Klitgaard, an economist who worked in Malabo during the late 1980s. The book ends with Klitgaard protesting the torture of a local colleague who was taken to the presidential compound above Malabo’s harbor, blindfolded, and had his hands tied behind his back. He was then hung by his ankles — as Klitgaard writes, “like a marlin at the weight scale” — and lowered into a barrel of soapy water and kept there until he choked. He was pulled out, questioned, and submerged again. This went on for several hours. Later, electric shocks were administered to his genitals. He was eventually released.</p>
<p>Even foreign officials have not been excluded from thuggery. John Bennett was the U.S. envoy to Equatorial Guinea from 1991 to 1994, and his outspokenness about such abuses angered Obiang. One evening he received a death threat at the U.S. Embassy. When I talked with Bennett recently, he recalled meeting the country’s president after the incident. “Obiang said he couldn’t believe anyone would threaten the American ambassador,” Bennett said drolly. “It was pretty low comedy.” Soon after, in 1995, the embassy was closed because of concerns over corruption and human rights.</p>
<p>The country might have disappeared from our geopolitical radar had Mobil not struck oil in the waters off Malabo later that year. It quickly became clear that the Zafiro oil field was world-class. After a decade of development, oil production in Equatorial Guinea stands at more than 300,000 barrels a day, which at current prices translates to nearly $5.5 billion a year. A gas field owned by Marathon Oil has also become a major producer, and the ocean beds off Equatorial Guinea are being combed for additional deposits. Energy companies have invested several billion dollars in Equatorial Guinea, and Marathon is building a major liquefied natural gas facility. It is now possible to fly nonstop from Malabo to Texas on a weekly flight known as the “Houston Express.”</p>
<p>Equatorial Guinea is not the only country in the region to have emerged as a major oil supplier for the United States. West Africa is central to America’s effort to reduce dependency on Middle East oil. The region currently supplies 15 percent of America’s energy, and that figure is expected to rise to 25 percent within a few years. A report prepared by the African Oil Policy Initiative Group (AOPIG), a panel of U.S. government and energy industry officials brought together by the Jerusalem-based neoconservative Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, proposed that the Gulf of Guinea be declared a “vital interest” in U.S. national security policy. The report, unveiled at a press conference in 2002 by several congressmen, proposed that the U.S. military presence be enhanced to include a unified military command for Africa and a home port in São Tomé, an island state in this gulf. Three months later, President Bush convened a meeting with Obiang and nine other Central African leaders at the United Nations to discuss military and energy security. And in a sign of Equatorial Guinea’s new strategic role, a lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces — the U.S. military attaché from neighboring Cameroon — represented the Pentagon in the grandstand at the independence parade in Ebebiyin.</p>
<p>U.S. corporations are now investing more in Equatorial Guinea than in any other African country except for Nigeria and South Africa. In 2003, the Bush administration reopened the embassy, a move sharply criticized by human rights groups as a favor to the oil companies and to Obiang. Frank Ruddy, U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea in the mid-1980s, decries current U.S. policy, saying that Bush administration officials are “big cheerleaders for the government — and it’s an awful government.”</p>
<p>Obiang has few friends. He has alienated the Spanish — and through them the entire European Union — by accusing Madrid of involvement in the March 2004 coup attempt. Aside from the Chinese, only the Bush administration seems to like Obiang. No senior administration official has issued a public word of criticism against his regime. Instead, in June 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham each met privately with Obiang in Washington. When I interviewed Gabriel Nguema Lima, Obiang’s son, he warmly saluted the Bush administration: “The United States, like China, is careful not to get into internal issues.”</p>
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<p>Equatorial Guinea exemplifies what is known as the “resource curse,” the paradox by which countries rich in oil, gas, or minerals tend to suffer rather than benefit, because the abundance of “easy money” undermines healthy economic and political development. In Nigeria — to cite a classic example — total oil revenues have topped hundreds of billions of dollars, but poverty is worse than it was before the oil rush began more than 20 years ago; corruption is a national sport, and the country is fissuring along ethnic lines.</p>
<p>In Equatorial Guinea, nearly half of all children under five are malnourished. Even major cities lack clean water and basic sanitation. A health consultant who recently visited Equatorial Guinea for the first time since 1993 wrote with dismay in the International Herald Tribune: “Despite the oil boom, I was unable to see any improvements in the living standards of ordinary people.” (Obiang is not among the ordinary: In 1999 he paid $2.6 million — cash — for a mansion outside Washington, D.C. One of his wives had a $10,000 daily limit on her Riggs Bank debit card.)</p>
<p>On my way to Ebebiyin, I was stopped several times by underpaid or rarely paid soldiers who demanded bribes — in their parlance cerveza, or beer money. In the town itself, the main hospital is a place for dying, not healing. The wards are dingy rooms with soiled mattresses and no medical equipment except for a couple of IV drips. By contrast, the town’s sparkling conference hall is air-conditioned and had, during a reception for Obiang’s cabinet the evening before the parade, a 25-foot table stocked with bottles of Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, and Spanish wine. Apart from such showcase buildings, even government facilities can be decrepit. When I interviewed the minister of education in his office, only one of the two light fixtures had a bulb and I could not tell whether it worked because the power was out.</p>
<p>Yet to Western oil companies, Equatorial Guinea is an ideal partner. Nearly all of its oil and gas reserves are offshore, which means securing the fields is relatively easy. ExxonMobil and Marathon workers live in gated compounds that operate their own electrical, water, and communication systems. Unlike in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia, foreign workers do not face major security threats, and the government’s brutish security apparatus has kept the violent-crime rate low. Expats freely cruise the rutted streets of Malabo in their pickup trucks and hang out at the most popular bars, like La Bamba and Shangri-La, among an abundance of professional women, known as “night fighters” because they bicker over prospective clients.</p>
<p>Most important for oil companies, Equatorial Guinea is a profitable place to do business. According to a 1999 report by the International Monetary Fund, oil companies received “by far the most generous tax and profit-sharing provisions in the region.” The state received only 15 to 40 percent of the revenues from its oil fields, while the norm in sub-Saharan Africa was 45 to 90 percent.</p>
<p>Even so, the government is expected to reap $1.5 billion in oil revenues this year, or about $3,000 per capita. But that figure is deeply misleading; for the average Equatoguinean, scraping by on roughly $2 a day, $3,000 is an unimaginable fortune. So where does the money go?</p>
<p>A basement-level warren in the Russell office building in Washington, D.C., houses the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which focuses on terrorism and money laundering. Its cramped suite is stacked with documents and investigative detritus. In March 2003, responding in part to an exposé by Ken Silverstein of the Los Angeles Times, the subcommittee began investigating Riggs Bank’s compliance with anti-money-laundering laws. It soon uncovered a range of improper activity involving accounts opened by Equatorial Guinea (and unrelated accounts belonging to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet).</p>
<p>The Senate inquiry wasn’t the only government probe of Riggs’ dealings: In a parallel investigation begun in 2003, the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) started looking into the bank’s Equatoguinean and Saudi accounts. In May 2004, the Treasury Department fined Riggs $25 million for “systemic” violations of anti-money-laundering laws — the largest fine ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970. While offering scant details, Treasury documents refer to “hundreds of thousands of dollars transferred from an account of the country of Equatorial Guinea to the personal account of a government official,” and to “millions of dollars deposited into a private investment company owned by an official of the country of Equatorial Guinea.”</p>
<p>The Senate investigation proved to be much more revealing. Using their subpoena power, investigators obtained records showing that as much as $700 million had been deposited in Equatoguinean accounts at Riggs. The committee also discovered that U.S. energy companies, including ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, Marathon Oil, and ChevronTexaco, made questionable payments directly to Riggs Bank accounts held by members of Obiang’s regime and his family. What emerges from the committee’s final report, released in July 2004, is an intricate exposé of how Obiang enriched himself and his family, and how oil companies, wittingly or not, helped him do so.</p>
<p>Although Riggs is only a medium-sized bank, it has been a D.C. institution for more than a century. Riggs has always been well connected — 21 presidents have used its services — and Jonathan Bush, the president’s uncle, is CEO of its investment arm. Riggs has also long been the banker to Embassy Row, and in recent years, embassy banking accounted for 20 percent of its revenue. Its client list, Senate investigators wrote, included many countries “with high risks of money laundering and foreign corruption.”</p>
<p>Riggs also has a reputation for not asking too many questions. As the committee report notes, “Riggs has repeatedly been cited for having weak anti-money-laundering controls.” Indeed, the document went so far as to call the bank’s program “dysfunctional.” This certainly held true in Riggs’ treatment of Obiang’s money: “Riggs was fully aware of the corruption risks associated with the E.G. accounts,” Senate investigators reported, yet the bank “failed to exercise enhanced scrutiny of the account activity, even for transactions involving large cash deposits or international wire transfers.”</p>
<p>Obiang’s relationship with Riggs began in 1995, and by 2003 his regime had become the bank’s single largest customer. In all, Riggs held more than 60 accounts belonging to Obiang, his government, and his ruling circle. The primary Equatoguinean bank account, known as the “oil account,” was where energy companies would deposit their royalty payments, and it often contained tens of millions of dollars at a time. There is no suggestion that those payments themselves were tainted, but Obiang’s handling of the account raised eyebrows. Among other suspicious activity identified in the report, the regime wired — without objection or scrutiny from Riggs — $35 million from the oil account “to two unknown companies” with accounts in nations with strict bank-secrecy laws.</p>
<p>Then there were the “investment accounts.” In 2003, the value of these accounts fluctuated between $300 million and $500 million. It is unusual for funds tantamount to a country’s treasury to be held in a private bank, especially a relatively minor one like Riggs, and even more unusual for transfers from such accounts to require only one signature — the president’s. That’s just one of the reasons Obiang is believed to have treated the public treasury as his own.</p>
<p>The handling of the accounts might have been comical if a nation’s wealth hadn’t been at stake; the manner of deposits was, on occasion, Chaplinesque. The Riggs official who managed the accounts from the bank’s DuPont Circle branch, Simon Kareri, twice went to the Equatoguinean Embassy, a mile away on 16th Street, and picked up suitcases that, as detailed in the Senate report, weighed 60 pounds and contained $3 million in plastic-wrapped stacks of $100 bills. He ferried them back to Riggs and deposited them into one of Obiang’s accounts. The bank also received cash deposits of more than $1.4 million into accounts belonging to Constancia Nsue, one of Obiang’s wives. In those cases — as with other cash deposits that larded accounts controlled by Obiang and Nsue — Riggs did not file “Suspicious Activity Reports” to the OCC as required whenever a bank suspects, or should suspect, that a transaction might involve illicit funds or the laundering of illicit funds.</p>
<p>(The oil account, as well as the others, was closed after the Senate investigation began, and Obiang’s government says that the funds are currently deposited at the Bank of Central African States, a regional institution based in Cameroon that holds treasury accounts.)</p>
<p>The committee reported a litany of other unorthodox activity. Riggs helped Obiang set up Otong S.A., an offshore shell corporation in the Bahamas to which he deposited $11.5 million in cash. Reporting these transactions to U.S. officials, Riggs “repeatedly mischaracterized” Otong as a “timber export company.” Riggs also issued a $3.75 million loan to Obiang’s eldest son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, to purchase a penthouse apartment in California. (Teodoro, owner of a fleet of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Bentleys, started a rap label in Beverly Hills.) But not all of the transactions were to Obiang’s benefit: The bank “exercised such lax oversight” over Kareri, the manager of the Equatoguinean accounts, that he was able to “transfer more than $1 million in E.G. oil revenues to an account he controlled at another bank.”</p>
<p>As the Senate report concluded, “Riggs Bank serviced the E.G. accounts with little or no attention to the bank’s anti-money-laundering obligations, turned a blind eye to evidence suggesting the bank was handling the proceeds of foreign corruption, and allowed numerous suspicious transactions to take place without notifying law enforcement.” Riggs officials declined to comment for this story.</p>
<p>The committee’s rebuke did not end with Riggs. “Oil companies operating in Equatorial Guinea,” Senate investigators wrote, “may have contributed to corrupt practices in that country by making substantial payments to, or entering into business ventures with, individual E.G. officials, their family members, or entities they control, with minimal public disclosure of their actions.” Those conclusions triggered the current inquiry by the SEC into oil company transactions. Although the SEC won’t comment on ongoing investigations, it is understood to be probing possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits American companies from making direct or indirect bribes. (The oil companies deny wrongdoing and say they are cooperating with the SEC.)</p>
<p>Among the payments were more than $4 million that American oil companies, including ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, Marathon, and Amerada Hess, provided to fund the tuition and living expenses of Equatoguinean students in the United States. According to the Senate report, most of these students “appeared to be children or relatives of wealthy or powerful E.G. officials.”</p>
<p>The Senate report also describes payments the oil companies made to Obiang and his inner circle. About half of the 60 Equa- toguinean accounts at Riggs belonged to members of Obiang’s family or government (who were often the same, as in the case of Armengol Ondo Nguema, Obiang’s brother and the director of national security). Between 1995 and 2004, millions of dollars from U.S. oil firms were deposited into these accounts — for what appeared to be real estate or business deals — and some of these funds were transferred to offshore accounts. Such payments were made to, among others, the president’s wife, the interior and agricultural ministers, and at least one well-placed general.</p>
<p>In 2001 Exxon paid $175,000 to Constancia Nsue — as a representative of Obiang’s personal company, Abayak S.A. — to rent a compound that houses Exxon workers and offices. Exxon also rented a house from the nation’s minister of agriculture and paid $236,160 to a firm owned by the interior minister. The prize for the most unusual lease goes to Amerada Hess, which rented property for $445,800 from a 14-year-old relative of Obiang. Overall, Hess paid nearly $1 million in rent to Equatoguinean officials and their relatives, though the company told the Senate committee it planned to cancel those leases in 2004.</p>
<p>How much is too much to pay in rent to a teenager, to a general, to the president’s wife? There’s no easy answer. Equatorial Guinea is not a normal country: One resident remarked of the ruling elite, “Everything you see that attracts your attention is owned by them.” A foreigner who knows the country well described it to me as “a ranch” owned by Obiang. If the president or his relatives don’t happen to own something you want, they will likely acquire it before you do and then sell it to you at a tidy profit. As the Senate report notes, this type of “economic dominance” means that almost any business deal is likely to enrich a member of the president’s clan. “How oil companies can and should respond to this situation,” the report notes, “raises a number of difficult policy issues.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Bush administration is setting an abysmal example. The building it settled on to house the reopened embassy is owned by Manuel Nguema Mba, who is the minister of national security, a relative of Obiang’s, and an accused torturer. The State Department and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights have both documented cases in which Nguema supervised the torture of political opponents. In one case the victim was beaten to death. Now Nguema collects rent from the U.S. government.</p>
<p>After issuing its report, the Senate committee held a hearing in which the head of Riggs Bank, as well as senior executives of ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, and Amerada Hess, testified under oath.</p>
<p>Kareri, the Riggs official who oversaw the accounts, took the Fifth. But the bank’s president and chief executive officer, Lawrence Hebert, did speak, voicing regret that Riggs did not “fully meet the expectations of our regulators.” He blamed the absence of suspicious activity reports on a subpar computer system.</p>
<p>Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking minority member, was amazed. “Mr. Hebert,” he said, “you don’t need a computer system to realize suspicious activity when you’ve got 60 pounds of cash there being walked into the door with a suitcase.”</p>
<p>Levin was just warming up. He noted that Riggs hosted a lunch for Obiang in Washington, and that Hebert and three other executives had followed up with a letter expressing the bank’s “gratitude” for Obiang’s time and saluting his “prudent leadership.”</p>
<p>“How do you write that stuff to a man as abominable as this guy?” Levin asked. “How do you basically live with yourself?”</p>
<p>“We took prudent steps to be very careful with this gentleman,” Hebert replied.</p>
<p>“Who you calling a gentleman?” Levin shot back. “Let’s call him a dictator.”</p>
<p>Next were the oil executives. Andrew Swiger, then an executive vice president at ExxonMobil, was first to testify. “The business arrangements we’ve entered into have been entirely commercial,” Swiger said. “They are a function of completing the work that we are there to do, which is to develop the country’s petroleum resources and, through that and our work in the community, make Equatorial Guinea a better place.”</p>
<p>“Make it what?” Levin asked.</p>
<p>“A better place,” Swiger replied.</p>
<p>“I know you’re all in a competitive business,” Levin said in closing. “But I’ve got to tell you, I don’t see any fundamental difference between dealing with an Obiang and dealing with a Saddam Hussein.”</p>
<p>Obiang’s personal investment vehicle is Abayak S.A., and it was to Abayak that the oil companies made a number of their questionable payments. The company is mysterious — nobody seems to know how big it is, or exactly what it does. But an internal Riggs memo unearthed by the Senate describes it as “a significant earner of income for the President.” So I decided to make inquiries once I arrived in Equatorial Guinea.</p>
<p>According to the Senate report, Marathon Oil has negotiated a deal to purchase land from Abayak for more than $2 million; although much of the sale, as of June 2004, was pending, the oil company had already delivered a check to Abayak for $611,000, made out to Obiang. Marathon is also involved in a joint venture to operate two gas plants with GEOGAM, a quasi-state firm in which Abayak controls a 75 percent stake.</p>
<p>ExxonMobil operates an oil-distribution joint venture, called Mobile Oil Guinea Ecuatorial, in which Abayak owns 15 percent, based on a mere $2,300 investment. ExxonMobil has not disclosed the company’s revenues or current valuation.</p>
<p>What did Abayak offer its American partners other than the name and blessing of the president? I thought the answer could be found in Bata. The recently completed seven-story Abayak building is the biggest building in Bata — indeed, the largest one in the country. I asked a Ministry of Information official to take me to see Abayak’s headquarters so that I could talk with an executive or two.</p>
<p>At the ground-floor reception area, we were told the firm’s offices were on the top floor. When we went there, we found that four of the six offices on the floor were empty and not even furnished. Doors to the two remaining offices were locked and unmarked. If these were Abayak’s headquarters, they seemed unfathomably modest for a firm that had been selected as a partner by the largest oil companies in the world.</p>
<p>Perhaps the receptionist was wrong; maybe Abayak’s offices were on another floor. I checked every floor and saw that the offices were either empty — most were — or occupied by other entities. Even the Ministry of Information official who accompanied me was flummoxed. Where was Abayak? And more to the point, what was Abayak?</p>
<p>There were answers back in Malabo. I talked with two people who follow the nation’s financial affairs closely (and who asked not to be identified because they would face retribution from the government). One told me that, as far as he knew, Abayak conducted some legitimate business but functioned mainly as a vehicle through which payments were made in exchange for the president’s approval of business projects. The other person called Abayak a “holding company” and said it had no administrative offices that he knew of. Indeed, there is no Abayak building or administrative offices in Malabo that I could locate. It was not possible to ask the president about this or any other matter — my requests for an interview were declined. So I went to the next-best source, his son Gabriel Nguema Lima, who, in high Equatoguinean tradition, is also the vice minister of mines and energy.</p>
<p>Obiang has several wives and many children — some accounts put the number at 40 — but the two children who count the most are Teodoro, the eldest son of Constancia Nsue, and Gabriel, the eldest son of Obiang’s second wife. Due to his playboy habits, Teodoro has faded somewhat in the past year while Gabriel, who is smart and hardworking, has taken a larger public role even though he is not yet 30 years old.</p>
<p>His Malabo office is in the ministry headquarters, a modest two-story building where, on the day of my interview, a rooster was pecking around the front yard. The office, though it has a flat-screen computer, is not large — in most governments it would house a mid-level civil servant. Adorning the wall is Nguema’s diploma from Alma College and his varsity soccer letter from prep school Cranbrook Kingswood, both in Michigan.</p>
<p>Nguema has become a spokesman for his father on financial affairs, so I asked about the Riggs controversy. “If Equatorial Guinea wanted to do something illegal,” he said, “the easy thing would be to do a Swiss account or a Bahamas account where nobody will know what happens.” He claimed his government used Riggs because the U.S. State Department had recommended the bank: “We wanted to make sure that American companies feel comfortable.”</p>
<p>When I asked Nguema about Abayak, he described it as an industrial concern with experience in the cement and cocoa businesses. I told him that I had been trying to locate the company’s headquarters.</p>
<p>He scratched his head.</p>
<p>“Uhm, headquarters of Abayak, that’s a good question,” he said, pausing uncomfortably. “I don’t think they have a headquarters here. I know they work from here, but they don’t have a headquarters here. The headquarters would be” — he paused again and looked at his feet — “maybe my father’s house.”</p>
<p>As with most dictatorships, Obiang’s regime does not like reporters nosing around. I let the authorities know that I was working on a book about oil, and they had not seemed particularly concerned about my presence until I took a stroll with the Spanish ambassador, Carlos Robles Fraga. What ensued provided an unexpected lesson in the clout the U.S. government carries in Equatorial Guinea.</p>
<p>I happened to meet Robles while I was in Ebebiyin for the celebration. We walked around the town square, an area thick with security officials, and had an innocuous 10-minute conversation. The next day, an adviser to Obiang called my cell phone and demanded I leave the celebration because I had met “the enemy.” After a few hastily arranged meetings and many reassuring words, the problem seemed to have blown over. But two days later the minister of information, Alfonso Nsue Mokuy, came to my hotel with a presidential aide in tow.</p>
<p>“Peter, you have caused us enormous problems,” he said. “The president has called me three times, and him,” nodding to the presidential aide, “four times.”</p>
<p>I was startled that the president would concern himself so intimately with my case.</p>
<p>“Was he angry?” I asked.</p>
<p>“We are all angry,” the minister replied. I would have to leave the country.</p>
<p>I was driven by the adviser to the airport, where my passport was taken and I was told to wait in the international departure lounge. When I tried, an hour later, to send an email, I was taken to a security office, where the minister of information soon appeared, sweating like a boxer in the 10th round. He was yelling at me, a bit incoherently.</p>
<p>“You are a spy,” he said, waving his finger at me. This was nonsense, I replied, and, remembering the call-the-bluff strategy of a colleague in Baghdad who was accused of espionage by Saddam Hussein’s security service, I said that if he believed I was a spy he should take me to prison straightaway.</p>
<p>“Let me see your computer,” he demanded. Apparently I was not quick enough to open my bag because the minister slapped at my forearms and told me to hurry up.</p>
<p>“If any harm comes to me, there will be a big problem between your government and my government,” I said sternly.</p>
<p>“Are you threatening me?” he asked, mentioning that in a week or so he would be visiting Washington for official meetings.</p>
<p>“If you do anything to me, you will not be going to Washington,” I warned.</p>
<p>He backed down. If what I said was true — and I had as little idea of that as he did — he would be doing something worse than angering his own president; he would be angering the president’s all-powerful friend. He didn’t touch me again.</p>
<p>Two days after my expulsion, President Obiang met with the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy, who had come to the airport to make sure I was treated fairly before I was made to board a turboprop to Cameroon. Obiang apologized for my expulsion, saying there had been a misunderstanding, and he invited me back as his personal guest. His apology was surprising: Presidents, in democracies and dictatorships alike, don’t like to say they made a mistake. But Obiang did, and the most reasonable explanation is that he fears displeasing the U.S. government, his indispensable ally.</p>
<p>Unless something changes, Equatorial Guinea is cursed; it is ruled by an elite that has shown little conscience or judgment in the realms of economic and political development. It is a safe bet that much of the oil money will be stolen or squandered by Obiang’s regime, even if the American government and oil companies do what is within their power to do. Yet that margin of difference — reducing the curse from total to partial — is well within reach.</p>
<p>It is not a radical agenda. The report by AOPIG, the neoconservative group of government and energy industry officials, argues that it is against U.S. interests to support unsavory regimes, and that the solution is to engage them “in a way that fosters and encourages the development of a middle class, rather than allowing petrodollars to flow into the hands of a small number of corrupt leaders and their associates.” In other words, don’t go into business with the Abayaks of the world.</p>
<p>The Senate recommendations are more aggressive. “To further reduce opportunities for corruption, U.S. oil companies should not participate in future business ventures in which individual E.G. officials or their family members have a direct or beneficial interest,” the report concludes. “Congress should also amend the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to require U.S. companies to disclose substantial payments to and business ventures entered into with a country’s officials, their family members, or entities they control.”</p>
<p>The bottom line is that Equatorial Guinea is a country in which the Bush administration — which proclaims a vast interest in promoting democracy around the globe — could make a difference, if it wished. When it makes a demand, Obiang listens because he must. Militarily and politically, he’s a paper tiger. Last March, a gang of fewer than 100 inept mercenaries came close to killing him, which is why he has reinforced his Moroccan security detail and paid an estimated $50 million for several Ukrainian attack helicopters. Yet he knows it is well within the power of the U.S. government to depose him — or, at least, curb his kingly ways.</p>
<p>For people in Equatorial Guinea, the U.S. government may be their only and perhaps last hope. While in Malabo, I would often take an evening stroll from my hotel and sit on the steps of a building overlooking an intersection with a colorful whirl of activity. The street lights worked only occasionally, but a nearby bar played irresistible music from the Ivory Coast, and vendors sold snacks to the men and women who talked and flirted in the near-darkness.</p>
<p>Almost every time I visited that spot, I met a man on the steps. He was an ordinary Equatoguinean, which means he was jobless and struggled to feed his family, yet he was hopeful that things might improve because Americans had taken an interest in his country. We always talked, and because I never asked his name, he talked freely.</p>
<p>“Obiang doesn’t care about the people, only his family,” the man said. “He doesn’t want to share the money. He says he wants democracy, but if I say to him these things, I will go to jail and be killed. It is our brother who is killing us. The whites, they should help us. Saddam Hussein, he was a dictator, and the whites decided to get rid of him. They should help us, too.”</p>
<p>By “whites” he meant “Americans.” We are the ones offering jobs to a lucky few workers. In his eyes, we are the ones who stand for democracy and a future that is not filled with theft and violence by a government mafia. We are a good people who will do what is right — or should do what is right.</p>
<p>“Don’t forget me,” I heard him shout, after our last conversation, as I walked away.</p>
<p /> | A Touch of Crude | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/01/obiang-equatorial-guinea-oil-riggs/ | 2018-01-01 | 4 |
<p>DES MOINES (IOWA)Des Moines RegisterBy <a href="" type="external">REKHA BASU</a>Register Columnist05/30/2003It's been a year, and Mary Polich's strength is in short supply, and so is her optimism. An old cancer returned. Doctors say she has four years left. Her husband had bypass surgery.</p>
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<p>And she's been waiting for the Des Moines Catholic Diocese to mend a hole in her heart caused by an abusive priest she blames for her son's suicide.</p>
<p>It was last May 12 that Polich broke her silence about the sexual abuse of her son, Tommie Pierick, by Father Albert Wilwerding. It began when he was in grade school at All Saints Church, where Wilwerding was a priest. Tommie led a tormented life before killing himself in 1985 at age 32. On one such attempt, he told his mother about Wilwerding.</p>
<p>Polich said the late Bishop Maurice Dingman was also told about it by Tommie and Tommie's uncle, a former priest. Today the diocese says it has no record of that. But in 1985 it quietly sent Wilwerding away to a treatment center for abusive priests, where he remains. It claimed to have acted on an unspecific, anonymous complaint.</p> | Basu: A year later, mother waits for action on abusive priest | false | https://poynter.org/news/basu-year-later-mother-waits-action-abusive-priest | 2003-05-30 | 2 |
<p>If you are a British civil servant it may behoove you to review your grammar books.</p>
<p>Michael Gove, the new UK Justice Secretary, has issued a memo with specific grammatical and style instructions for correspondence within the department. Gove has declared that contractions are never to be used, hyphenated phrases are not preferred,&#160;"impact" is a&#160;noun but not a verb, and the word "ensure" is always to be replaced with 'make sure.'</p>
<p>"I think the one that's got the most controversy is he says you can never start a sentence with 'however,'&#160;it can only be used in the middle of a sentence," explains Telegraph reporter Olivia Goldhill.&#160;"But a lot of people say they were taught to use 'however'&#160;to start&#160;sentences. And it is grammatically correct, this is just his personal style."</p>
<p>In fact all of the above rules are more dictums of personal style than grammatical correctness. Gove also encourages his employees to take a "warm tone" and not be "too pompous."</p>
<p>Gove, a former education secretary, has a history of writing these sorts of style guide. In 2013 he sent out an email of "10 golden rules" for writing. The email also instructed government employees to read the works of writers such as&#160;George Orwell or Jane Austen to improve their own prose.&#160;</p>
<p>But a British paper, the Independent on Sunday, conducted a study of Gove's writing and determined the Lord Chancellor has not always adhered to his own edicts. Gove used to be a writer for the Times and in that time&#160;frequently began sentences with however.&#160;Luckily for Gove,&#160;this error is not technically gramatically incorrect.</p> | British civil servants get a lesson in grammar from the new justice secretary | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-06-22/british-civil-servants-get-lesson-grammar-new-justice-secretary | 2015-06-22 | 3 |
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<p>Some excerpts of the first State of the Union address of a new president:</p>
<p>Today marks my first State of the Union address to you, a constitutional duty as old as our republic itself. President Washington began this tradition in 1790 after reminding the nation that the destiny of self-government and the “preservation of the sacred fire of liberty” is “finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” From this podium, Winston Churchill asked the free world to stand together against the onslaught of aggression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke of a day of infamy and summoned a nation to arms. And Douglas MacArthur made an unforgettable farewell to a country he had loved and served so well. Dwight Eisenhower reminded us that peace was purchased only at the price of strength and John F. Kennedy spoke of the burden and glory that is freedom.</p>
<p>When I visited this chamber last year as a newcomer to Washington, critical of past policies which I believe had failed, I proposed a new spirit of partnership between this Congress and this Administration and between Washington and our state and local governments. In forging this new partnership for America we could achieve the oldest hopes of our republic’s prosperity for our nation, peace for the world, and the blessings of individual liberty for our children and, someday, for all of humanity.</p>
<p>It’s my duty to report to you tonight on the progress that we have made in our relations with other nations, on the foundation we’ve carefully laid for our economic recovery and, finally, on a bold and spirited initiative that I believe can change the face of American government and make it again the servant of the people.</p>
<p>Seldom have the stakes been higher for America. What we do and say here will make all the difference to auto workers in Detroit, lumberjacks in the Northwest, to black teen-agers in Newark and Chicago; to hard-pressed farmers and small businessmen and to millions of everyday Americans who harbor the simple wish of a safe and financially secure future for their children.</p>
<p>To understand the State of the Union, we must look not only at where we are and where we’re going but where we’ve been. The situation at this time last year was truly ominous….Late last year, we sank into the present recession….This time, however, things are different. We have an economic program in place completely different from the artificial quick-fixes of the past….If we had not acted as we did, things would be far worse for all Americans than they are today. Inflation, taxes and interest rates would all be higher.</p>
<p>A year ago, Americans’ faith in their governmental process was steadily declining. Six out of ten Americans were saying they were pessimistic about their future. A new kind of defeatism was heard. Some said our domestic problems were uncontrollable that we had to learn to live with the-seemingly endless cycle of high inflation and high unemployment. There were also pessimistic predictions about the relationship between our Administration and this Congress. It was said we could never work together.</p>
<p>Actually, that’s not what President Barack Obama is going to say on Wednesday night. It was the start of <a href="http://www.nationalcenter.org/ReaganStateofUnion82.html" type="external">Ronald Reagan’s first State of the Union speech</a>. (I tweaked just a few words to not give it away, but only a few.)&#160;What’s notable is that Reagan began that address by playing up the problems of the past—essentially pointing a finger at Jimmy Carter. With Republicans and conservative poised to jump on Obama for daring to note that he’s still dealing with profound problems bequeathed to him (and the nation) by the Bush-Cheney administration, fair-minded observers should recall that the Great Gipper was also a pretty good blamer.</p>
<p>You can follow David Corn’s postings and media appearances via <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidcorndc" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p /> | An SOTU Tradition: Blame Your Predecessor | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/sotu-tradition-blaming-your-predecessor/ | 2010-01-26 | 4 |
<p>Photo District NewsThe launch of Weekend Journal and the paper's redesign changed that, says Wall Street Journal photo editor Darrell Perry. He tells Jay DeFoore: "There used to be a joke: What's the easiest job in journalism? Photo editor at The Wall Street Journal. ...We do photo features now. In fact, we made our first Pulitzer nomination for Feature Photography last year. Photography is part of who we are now at the Journal."</p> | WSJ photo editor is no longer the easiest job in journalism | false | https://poynter.org/news/wsj-photo-editor-no-longer-easiest-job-journalism | 2003-06-12 | 2 |
<p>The French truck attack quickly became fodder in the White House race, with both presumptive nominees trumpeting their terror-fighting credentials and Newt Gingrich calling for Muslims in the U.S. to be tested on their beliefs.</p>
<p>“This is war,” Donald Trump told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on Thursday, adding that the NATO military alliance should be doing more to get “rid of ISIS.”</p>
<p>The Republican presidential nominee, who <a href="" type="internal">has said that Muslims should be barred from entering the country</a>, linked the Nice attack and previous ones in the U.S. and around the world to migrants and refugees.</p>
<p>“We're dealing with people without uniforms ... we are allowing people into our country — we have no idea where they are coming from. They have no paperwork, no documentation,” he said. “This may be the great Trojan Horse of all time.”</p>
<p>French President Francois Hollande has called the attack during Bastille Day celebrations "obviously a terrorist attack," and pledged to step up efforts to fight terror in Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>O’Reilly and other commentators have called for a Western intervention in Syria to defeat ISIS. There has been no claim of responsibility for the Nice attack by ISIS, international terrorism research organization Flashpoint Intelligence said.</p>
<p>Mike Pence, the former congressman and the current governor of Indiana <a href="" type="internal">who NBC News has learned is Trump’s pick for running mate</a>, also swiftly weighed in on the Nice attack.</p>
<p>“We must resolve to bring to justice all those responsible and defeat this enemy of civilization at its source,” he said.</p>
<p>Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton followed him in calling into Fox News.</p>
<p>“When I was secretary [of state] I started the first ever international group to deal with global terrorism and to bring everybody to the table,” she told O’Reilly, who has repeatedly called ongoing international terror attacks “a world war scenario.”</p>
<p>Clinton criticized American allies, some of whom she said were not doing enough to battle terrorism.</p>
<p>“There has been a reluctance on the part of some of our friends in Europe in sharing information for example like airline passenger lists,” she said. “In Europe, one of their problems is and they need to address is they don’t share enough information across their own borders.”</p>
<p>She added: “We need strong, tough diplomacy starting with our friends."</p>
<p>Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who had been muted as a potential Trump running mate, took his GOP colleague's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. a step further in an <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/5036444136001/newt-gingrich-deport-every-muslim-who-believes-in-sharia/?#sp=show-clips" type="external">interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity</a>.</p>
<p>“Every person here who is of a Muslim background" should be tested to determine whether he or she believes in Shariah, a legal code based on the Quran and other Islamic scriptures.</p>
<p>If they do, he said, they should be deported — even if they're U.S. citizens. Gingrich added that anyone who simply visits any website "favoring ISIS or al Qaeda or other terrorist groups" should be guilty of a felony, "and they should go to jail."</p>
<p>The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Gingrich's call to "test" Muslims in the U.S. as well as the truck attack.</p>
<p>"When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggests that American Muslims be subjected to an Inquisition-style religious test and then expelled from their homes and nation, he plays into the hands of terror recruiters and betrays the American values he purports to uphold," CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said.</p> | Newt Gingrich Wants Tests for All U.S. Muslims After Nice Attack | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/france-truck-attack/newt-gingrich-wants-tests-all-u-s-muslims-after-nice-n609916 | 2016-07-15 | 3 |
<p>Chefs who have an absolute sense of self are closed beings.&#160; They have found the cosmic truth to the workings of the kitchen, and no one will convince them otherwise.&#160; To be confronted with something as extraordinary, diverse, if not more so, than what they are accustomed to, shocks them.&#160; They register various reactions.&#160; Some go into traumatic denial.&#160; Others, like the permanently agitated Gordon Ramsay, respond with cultural stereotypes and foul language.</p>
<p>Ramsay&#160; has not doing too well of late.&#160; His restaurant at Claridges, according to the early release of the Michelin guide, has lost its only star.&#160; This has been put down to the departure of his pupil, Mark Sargeant, though one can also put it down to the fact that Ramsay&#160;&#160; has himself taken his eye off the cooking scene.&#160; He might have become a stellar chef of the television circuit, opening restaurants globally, but he has become a celebrity of food at the expense of making it.&#160; The viewers are left in no doubt who his programs are meant to promote.&#160; The food is secondary.&#160; Its structure, its creation, is placed to the side in a blur of kitchen activity and verbal abuse.&#160; (What would Ramsay&#160;&#160; be without his defensive, overly marketed use of the ‘f’ word?)</p>
<p>For that very reason, his travels to India, featured in the program ‘Gordon’s Great Escape’, have been nothing short of a disaster.&#160; He has followed the traditional formulae developed in previous cooking programs.&#160; But the food content is even more conspicuously absent.&#160; The audience is treated to his anti-vegetarian outlook in much detail, but very little as to the vegetarian diet he so happily assaults.&#160; He bristles at suggestions that his food might be spicier.&#160; He recoils at notions that a carrot might be ‘living’.</p>
<p>There is minimal discussion about the food served by the feared ‘real’ guru, who calmly cooks food along with a whole army in cool, collective fashion.&#160; The food is no doubt delicious, and Ramsay&#160; has to make the astonishing suggestion that he expected something ‘bland’.&#160; There is no room for hysterics, and Ramsay is left stunned that any kitchen could operate that way.&#160; The guru’s suggestion to Ramsay is simple: eat more vegetables.&#160; They might calm you down.</p>
<p>The stereotypes about India are so larded in this effort it beggars belief that a network would show it.&#160; Christopher Hart, in the Daily Mail (Jan 22), had an analysis.&#160; The British, he argued, ‘have become depressingly inured to the wearisome and repetitive stream of expletives that flows from his mouth.&#160; After all, swearing at the top of your voice – whether on the bus, in the pub or on TV – is, I’m afraid, now a daily staple of British life.’</p>
<p>Hart’s point is more on swearing that anything else.&#160; The good Briton surely should behave better in other countries.&#160; Courtesy is the famed attribute, even when hypocritically exercised.&#160; But there is a far more fundamental point here, and one that goes to the very approach undertaken by this ‘renegade’ chef.&#160; Ramsay&#160; , to put it quite simply, is not interested in educating us about food.</p>
<p>Ramsay, instead of dealing with the food in detail, takes every chance to focus on his own being.&#160; Every opportunity to remove his shirt is taken.&#160; There is one scene where he hunts for fish (a particularly unsuccessful enterprise) in Kerala, another where he is riding on a raft dragged by bulls in muddy water.&#160; Machismo, in such displays, comes first.&#160; He has little to say about the complex interaction of spices and the extraordinary world of food he encounters.&#160; He has nothing to say about the cultural values, which he mocks with boorish intensity.&#160; One scene is particularly jarring.&#160; In a display of childish intensity, he resorts to embracing the meditative ball in a pool.&#160; The other attendants, who never touch it, look on in bemusement.</p>
<p>‘Gordon’s Great Escape’ is historical nostalgia brought in stormy fashion to a kitchen he cares not to understand, a cultural denial of a country that incarnates him in the category of a coarse, colossally ignorant Briton from the days of the Raj.&#160; In truth, he was simply being a confused savage who did not know better.</p>
<p>BINOY KAMPMARK was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.&#160; He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.&#160; Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Gordon Ramsay in India | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/01/27/gordon-ramsay-in-india/ | 2010-01-27 | 4 |
<p>The incident occurred in Victoria, Texas, a suburb of Houston. A dash camera captured officer Nathaniel Robinson tasering 76-year-old Pete Vasquez.</p>
<p>Vasquez was driving a vehicle owned by the car dealership where he works. Officer Robinson pulled him over when he noticed the vehicle’s inspection sticker had expired. When Vasquez exited the car and attempted to show Robinson the dealer plates—which would’ve exempted the necessity for up to date inspection tags—that’s when the altercation happened.</p>
<p>“I don’t know what his deal is,” Vasquez told an officer that arrived on the scene later. Vasquez went on, “he came over here and got nasty with me and I’m not going to put up with it, I don’t care who it is. Then he grabbed me and threw me on the pavement there and I almost knocked my head on that damn poll and then he start [sic] Tasing.”</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2014/dec/13/victoria-police-officer-investigated-for-tasing-dr/" type="external">Victoria Advocate</a> reported:</p>
<p>A Victoria police officer is under investigation after a 76-year-old man accused him of using excessive force during a traffic stop.</p>
<p>The officer, Nathanial Robinson, 23, was placed on administrative duty Friday pending the outcome of an internal investigation into whether he violated the use of force policy when he tased Victoria resident Pete Vasquez, said Chief J.J. Craig. The officer was hired after graduating from the police academy two years ago.</p>
<p>The incident happened Thursday after Robinson saw an expired inspection sticker on the car Vasquez was driving back to Adam’s Auto Mart, 2801 N. Laurent St., where he helps with mechanical work.</p>
<p>Vasquez got out of the car, which is owned by the car lot, attempting to get the manager. He pointed out to the officer the dealer tags on the back of the car, which would make it exempt from having an inspection.</p>
<p>Police dashboard camera video shows Robinson arresting Vasquez for the expired sticker.</p>
<p>When the officer first grabbed Vasquez’s arm, the older man pulled it away. Robinson then pushed Vasquez down on the hood of the police cruiser. The two fell out of the camera’s video frame, but police said the officer used the Taser on Vasquez twice while he was on the ground.</p>
<p>“He just acted like a pit bull, and that was it,” Vasquez said. “For a while, I thought he was going to pull his gun and shoot me.”</p>
<p>Vasquez was handcuffed, placed in the back of the police cruiser and taken to Citizens Medical Center, where he remained in police custody for two hours.</p>
<p>Craig said the police department’s dash cam footage “raises some concerns.”</p>
<p>He decided to open the investigation after viewing the footage and has personally apologized to Vasquez for the incident.</p>
<p>“Public trust is extremely important to us,” Craig said. “Sometimes that means you have to take a real hard look at some of the actions that occur within the department.”</p>
<p>[h/t <a href="http://abc13.com/news/video-victoria-police-officer-caught-tasering-elderly-man/438334/" type="external">ABC 13 News</a>]</p>
<p>Follow Kemberlee Kaye on <a href="https://twitter.com/KemberleeKaye" type="external">Twitter</a></p> | 76-year-old man Tasered by cop over an inspection sticker | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/12/76-year-old-man-tasered-by-cop-over-an-inspection-sticker/ | 2014-12-16 | 0 |
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<p>FILE - This Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012, filephoto, shows a portion of The UnitedHealth Group Inc.?s campus in Minnetonka, Minn. UnitedHealth Group's first-quarter net income slid 8 percent as fees and funding cuts from the health care overhaul helped dent the performance of the nation's largest health insurer the company announced Thursday April 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)</p>
<p>UnitedHealth Group's first-quarter net income slid 8 percent as funding cuts to a key product and costs imposed by the health care overhaul dented the health insurer's performance.</p>
<p>The Minnetonka, Minn., company said Thursday the overhaul and government budget cuts added about 35 cents per share in costs during the quarter. The federal law aims to provide coverage for millions of uninsured people, but it also trims funding for Medicare Advantage plans, changes how insurers can write their coverage and adds an industry-wide tax, which is not deductible.</p>
<p>UnitedHealth shares fell 3 percent in premarket trading after it announced the first quarter performance, but the overhaul hit shouldn't surprise many investors. UnitedHealth said in December it expects the federal law to reduce its after-tax operating earnings by $1.1 billion in 2014.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While the overhaul adds taxes and other costs, it also is expected to throw insurers some new business, as people gain coverage under the law largely through state-based health insurance exchanges that started last fall. UnitedHealth is participating in about a dozen exchanges, but industry watchers aren't sure yet how much new business insurers have gained.</p>
<p>The overhaul also gave UnitedHealth's Optum segment some business, thanks to last fall's problem-plagued debut of the largely online exchanges, which frustrated many visitors with crashes and other technical problems. Optum provides information technology services and has been working with government officials to help fix exchange websites, but a company spokesman said that work wasn't a big revenue driver.</p>
<p>Overall, UnitedHealth earned $1.1 billion, or $1.10 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. That's down from $1.19 billion, or $1.16 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose nearly 5 percent to $31.71 billion.</p>
<p>Analysts expected earnings of $1.09 per share on $32.01 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.</p>
<p>The insurer said its Medicare Advantage business was hurt by both the overhaul and the mandatory across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration.</p>
<p>Medicare Advantage plans are privately run versions of the government's Medicare program for the elderly and disabled people, and UnitedHealth is the nation's largest provider of this coverage, with nearly 3 million enrollees. It said lower funding forced it to trim benefits and doctor networks this year and leave some markets.</p>
<p>UnitedHealth on Thursday also reaffirmed an earnings forecast for 2014 that it first laid out in early December. The insurer still expects earnings to range from $5.40 to $5.60 per share, while analysts expect, on average, $5.60 per share.</p>
<p>UnitedHealth Group Inc. is the first insurer to report earnings every quarter. Many see it as a bellwether for other insurers.</p>
<p>Shares of UnitedHealth, which also is a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, slid $2.67, or 3.4 percent, to $77.41 in premarket trading about 45 minutes before the market open.</p>
<p>After soaring nearly 39 percent last year, UnitedHealth shares have reverted to more measured growth so far in 2014, with the stock climbing about 4 percent.</p> | UnitedHealth's 1Q profit tumbles 8 percent | false | https://abqjournal.com/385361/unitedhealths-1q-profit-tumbles-8-percent.html | 2 |
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<p>In my opinion, a big story folks should be talking more about is how <a href="" type="internal">guilty Donald Trump is behaving</a> concerning these allegations about colluding with Russia. People with nothing to hide do not act how he’s behaved. I’m not a psychologist, nor do I have any sort of a medical degree, but you don’t need to be an expert on human behavior to tell that Trump’s not only acting like someone who’s guilty of … something, but that he’s absolutely terrified of people finding out the truth.</p>
<p>1. He keeps pushing the idea that all of this is just a “witch hunt” or a “hoax” when there’s a legitimate investigation dating back months that proves it’s not: Trump’s go-to propaganda for a lot of this has been this idea that all these allegations that his campaign colluded with Russia are nothing more than “FAKE NEWS!” being pushed by Democrats and the media because he “won” last November.</p>
<p>Except, as we learned when FBI Director James Comey <a href="" type="internal">made his statements to Congress</a>, there are active investigations into potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials that date back to last July. How can this all be based on sour grapes when these investigations date back to months before the 2016 election when most people really didn’t think he could “win”?</p>
<p>Plus, obviously, this isn’t all a “hoax” or a “witch hunt” considering there are legitimate&#160;active investigations looking into all of this. Typically, innocent people don’t try to undermine the reality of certain events unless there’s a reason they want people to doubt the authenticity or credibility surrounding them. Which is obviously what Trump’s been trying to do.</p>
<p>2. His continued attempt to tie Hillary Clinton and her campaign to Russia: He continues to tweet and bring up the right-wing conspiracy surrounding the “selling of uranium” by the U.S. to Russia while Clinton was Secretary of State, supposed ties John Podesta has to a Russian business, and even a speech Bill Clinton gave for a Russian bank.</p>
<p>Politifact went through several of these tweets and <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/mar/28/fact-checking-donald-trumps-tweets-about-hillary-c/" type="external">soundly debunked them</a> as pretty much pure nonsense.</p>
<p>To summarize the truth about those events:</p>
<p>Innocent people don’t usually try to deflect attention away from themselves by pushing ridiculous conspiracies — guilty people do. Donald Trump’s social media rants sound much more like the ramblings of his supporters trying to convince themselves that all this reality isn’t true more than it does a “president” who truly has nothing to hide.</p>
<p>3. He still won’t release his tax returns: This one is simple and doesn’t need much of an explanation. Many of these allegations against Trump center around Vladimir Putin potentially having financial leverage he’s using to blackmail him or potential conflicts of interests he might have tied to Russia. If none of that’s true, then all Trump would have to do is release his tax returns and prove it — but he won’t. Furthermore, he continues to lie about why he won’t release them. Once again, innocent people don’t tend to conceal information that could prove their innocence and they certainly don’t lie about why they’re concealing it.</p>
<p>4. Even with all this coming at him, he still refuses to say anything negative about Russia or Vladimir Putin: Common sense dictates that if Putin <a href="" type="internal">doesn’t have anything on Trump</a>, yet people continue to insist that his odd “bromance” with the Russian president is a sign that something seems to be going on, he would at least publicly fake some sort of “outraged condemnation” of something Russia-related, right? Even if Trump’s being absolutely sincere about his desire to “improve relations with Russia,” at some point it stands to reason that he should realize that goal isn’t worth <a href="" type="internal">plummeting approval numbers</a> and the continued appearance that his refusal to condemn Putin is tied to treason.</p>
<p>However, just an inexplicable as it is that he won’t release his tax returns that he claims won’t reveal any sort of unethical behavior, he still staunchly refuses to say anything negative about Russia or Vladimir Putin. I’m sorry Trump supporters, but that only fans the flames of the allegations that the reason why he won’t is because he’s being blackmailed by Putin and fears doing so could come back to haunt him.</p>
<p>5. He essentially ignored Comey’s public confirmation that his campaign is under investigation for colluding with Russian officials: When FBI Director James Comey publicly confirmed that Trump’s campaign is part of an active, on-going investigation dating back to well before Election Day, that was a huge deal. That was official confirmation that the current “President” of the United States is under investigation for possibly committing treason by colluding with a foreign enemy that attacked us. Yet, based on the reaction by Trump and his administration, you’d think Comey never confirmed this.</p>
<p>There was almost no official reaction to it.</p>
<p>In my opinion, if Trump’s innocent, then they should have publicly said they were glad there were investigations looking into all of this that will vindicate his innocence. If I’m being accused of something like treason, and I was innocent, I’d damn sure want investigations taking place so I could rightfully point to them and say to my critics, “See, I told you all these allegations were b.s., and here’s my proof.”</p>
<p>Like I pointed out earlier about his tweets, Trump’s acting as if Comey never confirmed the existence of these legitimate investigations. He’s still calling these Russian allegations a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” led by Democrats and the media, when they’re very real and they’re being investigated by U.S. intelligence agencies, and congressional oversight — not a political party.</p>
<p>There are more I could have listed, but I’ll cut it off there.</p>
<p>Feel free to <a href="https://www.twitter.com/allen_clifton" type="external">hit me up on Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allencliftonroc" type="external">Facebook</a> and let me know what you think.</p>
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<p>11 Facebook comments</p> | 5 Ways Trump’s Incompetence Continues to Unwittingly Suggest He’s Likely Guilty of Treason | true | https://forwardprogressives.com/5-ways-trumps-incompetence-continues-unwittingly-suggest-hes-likely-guilty-treason/ | 2017-04-03 | 4 |
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<p>A new report from&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/AandGShow" type="external">The&#160;Armstrong and Getty Radio Show</a>&#160;has sent shockwaves throughout the sports world after it was&#160;claimed that members of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders may have purposefully allowed their star quarterback to get sacked multiple times after he refused to kneel during the National Anthem.</p>
<p>If true, this would essentially mean that an NFL football game was&#160;illegally thrown over anger&#160;that one of the teams star white players did not believe that kneeling during the nation’s anthem was the&#160;correct way to protest supposed racial injustice in America.</p>
<p>In other words, an epic level scandal.</p>
<p>During the anthem, virtually the entire team was seen kneeling other than the teams coaches and star quarterback Derek Carr. Unfortunately, this may have not set well with the team’s offensive line as they were apparently the players who spearheaded the entire idea to kneel as a team in the first.</p>
<p>“This is one hell of a scandal with the NFL, could ruin the whole league,”&#160;claimed the&#160;show before detailing the fact that Carr was sacked two times in a row on the teams second drive and that the team’s usually dependable center snapped the ball at the wrong time in three different instances. Extremely capable receivers also made multiple “weird” drops of passes thrown by Carr that T.V. announcers even noted at the time.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.iheart.com/news/armstrong-and-getty-15193750/" type="external">The radio show</a>&#160;then&#160;revealed bombshell “insider information” from an “extremely reliable” source who claimed that members of the Oakland Raiders did indeed throw the game as a sort of punishment for Carr choosing to not use the countries anthem to make a political statement.</p>
<p>“He wants to stand alone, he can stand alone on the field,” one of the teams offensive lineman said, according to the shows source. Keep in mind, the offensive line are literally the guys whose job it is to protect the quarterback, in this case the star player who didn’t kneel.</p>
<p>Amazingly, the circumstantial (and possible direct) proof didn’t end there as the show then claimed that this same source also revealed that a local team reporter got wind of the story and asked a team official for comment. What he was apparently told in response has all the hallmarks of a team trying to cover up a major scandal.</p>
<p>“If you report on this, you will be blackballed, you will not get access to the Raiders period,” the reporter was supposedly told. “Your career covering the team will be over”.</p>
<p>While there are obviously major legal and ethical issues if this is true, it also paints a sad picture of a football league divided by a political and media establishment all too happy to cause as much racial divide in the country as possible. For as long as Americans focus on differences between each other, the global elites power remains completely unthreatened.</p>
<p>FULL REPORT:</p>
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<p>Additional Reading:</p>
<p>Authors&#160;Note:&#160;Its also important to&#160;consider&#160;that there is almost no chance that any member of the Raiders organization, whether coaches, the front office, or players (especially Carr himself) will publicly admit that this happened if it is indeed true. The sheer amount of mayhem it would cause is enough to keep almost anyone quiet. Anonymous player quotes and sources may be&#160;all we will ever have to go on.</p>
<p>Alex Thomas is a staff writer and reporter for <a href="http://www.thedailysheeple.com/shock-report-nfls-oakland-raiders-threw-game-after-white-qb-refused-to-kneel-for-national-anthem_092017" type="external">The Daily Sheeple</a>. Wake the flock up – follow Alex’s work at our&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thedailysheeple/" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;or&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/TheDailySheeple" type="external">Twitter.</a></p>
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<p /> | SHOCK REPORT: NFL’S Oakland Raiders Threw Game After White QB Refused to Kneel for National Anthem | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/09/30/shock-report-nfls-oakland-raiders-threw-game-after-white-qb-refused-to-kneel-for-national-anthem/ | 0 |
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<p>Following the revelation that a key "witness" featured in this week's CBS&#160;60 Minutes&#160;report on Benghazi previously claimed that he never got near&#160;the besieged diplomatic&#160;compound on the night of the attacks,&#160;Media Matters&#160;chairman David Brock is calling on CBS to retract its story.</p>
<p>On October 27, CBS aired a report on&#160;the Benghazi attacks&#160;that featured the claims of a supposed eyewitness using the pseudonym "Morgan Jones." Today, the&#160;Washington Post&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/11/01/60-minutes-benghazi-report-takes-a-huge-credibi/196705" type="external">revealed</a>&#160;that Jones, whose real name is Dylan Davies, previously filed a report with his security contractor employer saying that he "could not get anywhere near" the compound the night of the attack.&#160;</p>
<p>The flawed CBS report has since been&#160; <a href="/research/2013/10/29/fox-news-devoted-47-minutes-to-cbs-stale-bengha/196646" type="external">trumpeted</a>&#160;by&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/10/28/conservative-media-praise-cbs-60-minutes-report/196625" type="external">conservative media</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/10/30/media-reports-on-sen-grahams-benghazi-threats-i/196669" type="external">Republican politicians</a>.</p>
<p>In his letter to CBS executives, Brock writes that the story should be "immediately retracted and an independent investigative committee needs to probe all aspects of how the story was reported."</p>
<p>The full letter to CBS is below.</p>
<p>Mr. Jeff Fager</p>
<p>Chairman, CBS News</p>
<p>Mr. David Rhodes</p>
<p>President, CBS News</p>
<p>Greetings,</p>
<p>I am writing to express my concern about a&#160;60 Minutes&#160;segment on the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that CBS aired on October 27. As&#160;Media Matters for America&#160;noted earlier in the week, the segment&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/10/28/60-minutes-pretends-there-is-a-lingering-questi/196619" type="external">revived</a>&#160;long-answered questions about the attack and, even more troubling, a Fox News correspondent&#160; <a href="/blog/2013/10/28/60-minutes-benghazi-eyewitness-asked-fox-news-f/196623" type="external">said</a>&#160;that he had spoken to one of the witnesses interviewed "a number of times" about the attacks but stopped after the man "asked for money."</p>
<p>Today,&#160;The Washington Post&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/60-minutes-broadcast-helps-propel-new-round-of-back-and-forth-on-benghazi/2013/10/31/fbfcad66-4258-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html" type="external">revealed</a>&#160;that the very same witness previously said he never got near the diplomatic compound the night of the attack. This completely contradicts what was reported on air by correspondent Lara Logan, who said that during the attack, the witness "scaled the twelve-foot high wall of the compound that was still overrun with al Qaeda fighters." &#160;In the interview, the witness told Logan he had personally struck one of those terrorists in the face with his rifle butt and, following the attack, he went to the Benghazi hospital and saw Ambassador Chris Stevens' body.</p>
<p>According to&#160;Post, the witness revealed none of those details in the incident report he wrote following the attack. Instead, he said that he spent most of that night at his Benghazi beach-side villa and learned of Stevens' death from a colleague. This paints a damning picture of the credibility of the supposed eyewitness -- and thus of the CBS report itself.</p>
<p>A network spokesman told the&#160;Post, 'We stand firmly by the story we broadcast last Sunday." This is not sufficient. When questions were raised about documents involving President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard, CBS appointed an independent panel "to help determine what errors occurred in the preparation of the report and what actions need to be taken." Similar standards must be applied in this case. &#160;</p>
<p>The&#160;60 Minutes&#160;story should be immediately retracted and an independent investigative committee needs to probe all aspects of how the story was reported and get answers to the following questions:</p>
<p>The committee's findings should be public to and, if necessary, appropriate disciplinary action should take place.</p>
<p>In my most recent book,&#160;The Benghazi Hoax, I chronicled how the media has, for over a year, twisted the facts about what happened the night of the attacks. CBS' report was a new low. I hope you take this opportunity to reassure your viewers of your standards and accountability.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>David Brock</p>
<p>Chairman,&#160;Media Matters for America</p> | David Brock Calls On CBS To Retract Faulty Benghazi Story | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/01/david-brock-calls-on-cbs-to-retract-faulty-beng/196716 | 2013-11-01 | 4 |
<p>The Indian prime minister concealed his somewhat mysterious marriage throughout most of his political career; Pope Francis is now suffering rightwing backlash for some of his more progressive views; meanwhile, two children have been banned for life from discussing fracking. These discoveries and more below.</p>
<p><a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&amp;c=ZoZvkskooiOnAMvqeinDH1t8DROfAD32" type="external">Syriza’s Win Is the Beginning of the End for the Eurozone’s Long Nightmare</a> Everyone seems to agree that Syriza’s big victory in Greece is a milestone for Europe, which has been plagued by mass unemployment and a failure to really recover from the financial crisis and world recession of 2008-09. But what kind of a milestone will it be?</p>
<p><a href="http://pando.com/2015/01/28/andrew-sullivan-is-not-the-future-of-journalism/?utm_source=PandoDigest&amp;utm_campaign=2ffff61f4d-PandoDigest_December_9_2013_copy_09_12_11_2013&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_2f01c2729e-2ffff61f4d-81086421" type="external">Andrew Sullivan Is Not the Future of Journalism</a> With Andrew Sullivan announcing the end of his 15-year blogging career—and with it, his “bold experiment” in transforming journalism into crowd-funded blogging— I figure it’s a good time to take one last look at Sullivan’s long, poisonous contribution to the decline of American journalism.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.boredpanda.com/magic-realism-paintings-rob-gonsalves/" type="external">25 Mind-Twisting Optical Illusion Paintings By Rob Gonsalves</a> The beautiful and mind-bending illusions in Canadian artist Robert Gonsalves’ paintings have a fun way of twisting your perception and causing you to question what in his paintings, if anything, is real.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/05/children-ban-talking-about-fracking?CMP=share_btn_fb" type="external">Children Given Lifelong Ban on Talking About Fracking</a> Two Pennsylvanian children will live their lives under a gag order imposed under a $750,000 settlement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-wasserman/beyond-the-pieties-the-ch_b_6519402.html?utm_hp_ref=media&amp;ir=Media" type="external">Beyond the Pieties, the Charlie Hebdo Massacre Leaves Us with Painful New Ironies and Tired Old Remedies</a> It’s not hard to imagine the scorn that the artists and writers of Charlie Hebdo might have heaped on the dour protests their deaths provoked.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/abandoned-as-a-child-bride-indias-first-lady-still-hopes-her-husband-will-call/2015/01/25/3509dac5-5ac1-49e3-8b44-7d92e027c9ec_story.html" type="external">Abandoned As a Child Bride, Wife of Narendra Modi Hopes He Calls</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/drugs/jamaica-about-decriminalize-ganja" type="external">Jamaica is About to Decriminalize Ganja</a> The island nation most closely associated with marijuana in the popular mind is about to decriminalize it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120871/pope-francis-too-political?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=TNR%20Daily%20Newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter%20Template%20-%20Jan%2028" type="external">Pope Francis, Radical Leftist? The Rightwing Backlash Has Begun</a> After an initial wave of adulation, Pope Francis is now suffering a backlash.</p>
<p><a href="https://zcomm.org/sendpress/eyJpZCI6OTY5MDg0LCJ2aWV3IjoiZW1haWwifQ/" type="external">Google Glass Still Means Business</a> Last week, Google announced that it would be ending the Glass Explorer project for the public to purchase.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/28/privacy-for-sale-price-data-protection-politicians-personal-information?CMP=ema_565" type="external">Our Privacy Is for Sale, We Have to Accept That. But What’s the Price Tag?</a> On data protection and privacy day, it’s worth remembering that politicians are all too willing to trade in our personal information</p>
<p><a href="http://hyperallergic.com/177110/a-historic-manuscript-on-aztec-life-is-virtually-repatriated/?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=A+French+Artist+Demonstrates+How+Not+to+Handle+Criticism&amp;utm_content=A+French+Artist+Demonstrates+How+Not+to+Handle+Criticism+CID_4a987d59edf26f2941c56f1d03bc81a7&amp;utm_source=HyperallergicNewsletter&amp;utm_term=A%20Historic%20Manuscript%20on%20Aztec%20Life%20Is%20Virtually%20Repatriated" type="external">A Historic Manuscript on Aztec Life Is ‘Virtually Repatriated’</a> One of the major textual resources on pre-Columbian Mexico is now online in a digital platform launched this month.</p> | What Happened to Narendra Modi's Childhood Bride? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/what-happened-to-narendra-modis-childhood-bride/ | 2015-01-29 | 4 |
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<p>Announcing the sale of both its Cerro Blanco project and Los Filos mine two weeks ago,Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) has hit the ground running in 2017. How much more does the company have up its sleeve for the rest of the year? Luckily for us, management provided some insight during its recent Investor Day event.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Although it hasn't reported its fiscal 2016 earnings yet, management affirmed its guidance -- during the third-quarterearnings report -- for all-in sustaining costs (AISC) in fiscal 2016 to total between $850 and $925 per gold ounce. Should actual AISC come in in the middle of this range, it would be a nominal improvement over the $893 per gold ounce that the company reported in fiscal 2015. Nonetheless, it would be an improvement -- something that the company has been consistently achieving. In fiscal 2013, for example, it reported AISC of $1,008 per gold ounce and has been lowering it each subsequent year.</p>
<p>In the year to come, management is forecasting the company will report AISC of $850 plus or minus 5% per gold ounce -- a range of $808 to $893. The reduction will be driven, in part, by the Pueblo Viejo mine, which is forecast to produce 415,000 ounces of gold in fiscal 2017 -- the most productive mine in Goldcorp's portfolio -- at an AISC of $530 per gold ounce. Through the first nine months of fiscal 2016, the mine has reported AISC of $488 per gold ounce.</p>
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<p>Extending its outlook beyond 2017, management revealed in its Investor Day presentation that it has the long-term goal of reducing its AISC by about 20%, to $700 per gold ounce by 2021.</p>
<p>In an attempt to increase net asset value per share by achieving economies of scale, management is committed to recognizing gold production from six to eight large-scale camps by 2021. This will, in part, be accomplished by expanding the company's portfolio. To this end, of the $1.3 billion in capital expenditures (capex) that Goldcorp is forecasting for 2017, $600 million will be used on advancing projects in the company's pipeline. Specifically, investors can expect development activities to continue through 2017 at two of the projects that figure prominently into the vision of a more robust portfolio: Coffee and Borden.</p>
<p>Located about 100 miles west of the Porcupine mine in Ontario, Borden recently received advanced exploration permits. Pending positive results of a pre-feasibility study, engineering activities are expected to continue through 2017, leading up to mine construction in 2018 and commercial gold production in Q3 2019. Illustrating the potential value of Borden, management estimates that it will commit 12% -- the most of any expansionary project -- of the $600 million to Borden.</p>
<p>While it is pursuing development of Borden in Ontario, the company will also be brewing excitement at its Coffee project in Yukon, Canada. Engaged in initial studies to support the permitting process, Goldcorp foresees gold production commencing in Q4 2020. Accounting for only 5% of the $600 million in expansion capex dollars, Coffee, according to management, has the potential to be a new large-scale camp.</p>
<p>During its Investor Day presentation, Goldcorp's management highlighted two trends: a decrease in gold reserves over the past three years and a projected decrease in gold production over the next five years. Unlike its peers, however, Goldcorp foresees increasing both its gold reserves and gold production in the next five years -- something it will begin to do in fiscal 2017.</p>
<p>Image source: Goldcorp</p>
<p>According to management, Goldcorp had 42.3 million ounces of gold reserves as of June 2016. From this point, the company expects to grow its reserves by about 20%, to 50 million ounces in 2021. Though the company didn't provide guidance for the size of the reserves in 2017, investors can expect to see plenty of activity at the Penasquito mine in Mexico as a means of achieving this target.</p>
<p>Management estimates that of the $700 million in capex spending for sustaining projects, Penasquito will account for a massive 41%. The next closest project to Penasquito is the Cerro Negro mine, receiving 13% of capex dollars. Representing a total cost of about $420 million, the Pyrite Leach Project is expected to produce its first gold in Q1 2019. Management expects the project to add about 100,000 to 140,000 in annual gold production to the Penasquito mine. For some context, Penasquito is forecast to produce 410,000 ounces of gold in fiscal 2017.</p>
<p>In terms of total gold production, management is forecasting approximately 2.5 million ounces in fiscal 2017. From this point, management expects production to rise about 20% by 2021, when gold production is forecast to total 3 million ounces. Besides the aforementioned Borden, Coffee, and Pyrite Leach Project, the company identifies increased production at numerous other sites as contributing factors. For example, the Eleonore mine produced 274,000 gold ounces in fiscal 2016, and management is forecasting its production to increase to 315,000 ounces in fiscal 2017. The Cerro Negro mine produced 363,000 gold ounces in fiscal 2016, but this is expected to rise to410,000 ounces in fiscal 2017.</p>
<p>In suggesting that Goldcorp will be achieving something that few peers are doing -- increasing gold reserves and production -- management is clearly optimistic about its future. Now that it has set the lofty goals, though, all it has to do is execute its strategy. Of course, that's a lot easier said than done. Fortunately for us, management has provided plenty of figures that we can use to gauge its progress.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Goldcorp When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=69ab5237-1172-4420-8f25-d2ec3a185e25&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 Goldcorp wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=69ab5237-1172-4420-8f25-d2ec3a185e25&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of January 4, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/scott81236/info.aspx" type="external">Scott Levine 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> | 3 Things Goldcorp Investors Can Expect in 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/31/3-things-goldcorp-investors-can-expect-in-2017.html | 2017-01-31 | 0 |
<p>PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump started off his first day of Thanksgiving vacation by resuming his taunts of the father of a UCLA basketball player detained for shoplifting in China, saying Wednesday that he was an “ungrateful fool.”</p>
<p>In a series of tweets fired off before dawn, the president complained yet again that LaVar Ball, father of LiAngelo Ball, hasn’t given him credit for the release of his son and two other UCLA basketball players from detention in China.</p>
<p>Tweeting from his Florida vacation home, Trump said: “It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence – IT WAS ME.”</p>
<p>“Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair,” he said, referencing the flamboyant boxing promoter whom Trump once saluted as “a phenomenal person” despite a conviction for manslaughter.</p>
<p>Trump also warned that Ball “could have spent the next five to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you” had it not been for his intervention.</p>
<p>“But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China,” he wrote.</p>
<p>LiAngelo Ball and two UCLA teammates were released after a brief detention in China while Trump was visiting the country. Trump has taken credit for the release, saying he discussed the situation with Chinese President Xi Jinping.</p>
<p>LaVar Ball, whose eldest son, Lonzo, plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, has repeatedly minimized Trump’s involvement in winning the players’ release, telling CNN earlier this week: “If I feel nobody did anything, I don’t have to go around saying thank you to everybody.”</p>
<p>Trump had previously said he should have left all three players in jail.</p>
<p>Trump on Wednesday also spoke out against the idea of keeping NFL players in the locker room during the playing of the national anthem as a response to some players refusing to stand to protest racial inequality and police brutality.</p>
<p>“That’s almost as bad as kneeling! When will the highly paid Commissioner finally get tough and smart?” Trump wrote. “This issue is killing your league!”</p> | Trump keeps up war of words with ‘ungrateful fool’ LaVar Ball | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/trump-keeps-up-war-of-words-with-ungrateful-fool-lavar-ball/ | 2017-11-22 | 1 |
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<p>The subject is broached when two Jewish brothers, David and Yossi Shapiro, are facing hard times running their famous Jewish delicatessen in midtown Manhattan.</p>
<p>The brothers fear business will get even tougher with the new competition: A German is opening up his own deli, Reinhardt’s, across the street.</p>
<p>The first public staged reading of the play will be Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Vortex Theatre.</p>
<p>Playwright Richard Atkins will see a staged reading of his play “DelikateSSen” at the Vortex Theatre.</p>
<p>“I thought I should bring the Holocaust into the picture as the brothers were made orphans by the Holocaust. They lost all 16 members of their family,” Atkins said.</p>
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<p>“But I also wanted to show a different side – the German view. … I’m trying to give a more humanistic side to the German point of view.”</p>
<p>He also thought carefully about what year to put the play in. It takes place in 1972. New York’s city government is bankrupt. The Bronx is in flames.</p>
<p>Atkins said Mark Medoff, a well-known Las Cruces playwright, director and professor, urged him to set the play right after the 1972 Munich Olympics at which 11 Israeli Olympic team members were massacred.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely unique in pitting merchants of different backgrounds and they’re bringing an incredible amount of baggage with them,” Atkins said.</p>
<p>“But the play isn’t as much about the Holocaust as it is about the family unit – brothers, wives, kids. How memories of the Holocaust 25, 30 years later continue to affect the family unit. That’s also the idea for the German family. Their family unit is at stake as well.”</p>
<p>Atkins said the issues of hate, revenge and forgiveness also come into play.</p>
<p>Among the actors reading are Joe Alberti as David Shapiro, Benjamin Liberman as his brother Yossi, Carl Eisler as an old German violinist and Arthur Alpert as Rabbi Weiss.</p>
<p>Atkins, artistic director of the East Mountain Centre for Theatre, is hoping to mount a full production in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>“Many regional theaters are looking at it and I’m working on a screenplay,” he said.</p>
<p /> | Sandia Park playwright shows 2 views | false | https://abqjournal.com/267111/sandia-park-playwright-shows-2-views.html | 2013-09-22 | 2 |
<p>A majority of employees at digital news site Slate have voted in favor of the Writers Guild of America East serving as their representative in collective bargaining. The guild announced Tuesday that Slate’s management agreed to recognize the union after a vote confirmed that the majority of eligible employees voted in favor of unionizing. “Employees […]</p> | Slate Staffers Unionize With Writers Guild of America East | false | https://newsline.com/slate-staffers-unionize-with-writers-guild-of-america-east/ | 2018-01-24 | 1 |
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<p>Workers at the U.S. Capitol building joined other federal contract workers in a one-day strike on Thursday. (Good Jobs Nation / Twitter) &#160;</p>
<p>For the first time in history, federal contract workers at the U.S. Capitol building walked off the job Thursday, fighting for a $15 minimum wage, better benefits and the right to unionize. They joined workers from the Pentagon, the Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo and other federal contract workers in the nation’s capital.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/11/13/?entry=mb-4&amp;_r=0" type="external">According to the New York Times</a>, the employees—food service workers and janitors at some of Washington, D.C.’s most popular tourist attractions and busiest federal government buildings—are urging President Obama to sign executive orders that would prioritize federal contracts to companies who could guarantee workers a $15 minimum wage, health insurance and paid leave.</p>
<p>Though Obama <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/us-usa-obama-wages-idUSBREA1B0PZ20140212" type="external">signed an executive order in February</a> that mandates a $10.10 minimum wage for all new federal contract workers, the 800 workers and supporters who rallied on Thursday are demanding higher wages and more protections.</p>
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/13/3591853/capitol-visitors-center-strike/" type="external">As ThinkProgress reported</a>, the federal government is essentially the largest employer of contract workers in the country. Though they are serving the government, these subcontractors are private companies and make massive profits—while many employees can barely make ends meet.</p>
<p>Workers can count some Democratic congressional leaders as allies. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/progressive-dems-obama-executive-actions_n_6134290.html" type="external">According to the Huffington Post</a>, on Monday, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that even though Republicans are cautioning against executive action following Democratic losses in last week’s midterm elections, Obama should seize the opportunity. Grijalva and his co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) hope to push the executive orders.</p>
<p>"The president is in a pivotal position to go assertively with executive orders to create a political balance and an economic balance," Grijalva told reporters on a conference call.</p>
<p>Members of the Progressive Caucus joined Thursday’s march, including Ellison and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.).</p>
<p>Marching outside the Capitol with federal workers on strike for a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/livingwage?src=hash" type="external">#livingwage</a> of $15/hr. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoodJobs?src=hash" type="external">#GoodJobs</a> <a href="http://t.co/uGo6kVRlst" type="external">pic.twitter.com/uGo6kVRlst</a></p>
<p>Ellison <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/u-capitol-workers-others-strike-higher-pay-union-130339593--sector.html" type="external">told the crowd</a>, "We want more than minimum wage. Who wants a minimum anything? Do you want a minimum marriage?"</p>
<p>The one-day strike was organized by the Good Jobs Nation campaign, which is backed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and has led nine other strikes involving federal contract workers in D.C. since May of last year.</p> | Striking Federal Contractors: Thanks for the Raise, Obama, But We Want $15 | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17357/federal_contract_workers_strike | 2014-11-13 | 4 |
<p>Former Reagan economic policy advisor Art Laffer discusses the Illinois budget dilemma.</p>
<p>CHICAGO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Bank of America Merrill Lynch won $750 million of Illinois bonds in competitive bidding on Wednesday as the state faced a lingering market penalty for its fiscal and political woes.</p>
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<p>Spreads for the general obligation bonds over Municipal Market Data's benchmark triple-A yield scale tightened by about 2 to 5 basis points for 10-year and longer bonds in the deal, but widened by 4 to 10 basis points for some shorter-dated bonds, according to Randy Smolik, MMD's chief market analyst.</p>
<p>That indicated good performance for Illinois bonds mainly in the 10-year range compared with where they had been trading in the secondary market, he added.</p>
<p>Market conditions were tough for the two-part bond deal from Illinois, the lowest-rated U.S. state, as the muni market was hit with a sixth-straight session of falling prices and higher yields.</p>
<p>For Illinois bonds due in 2042 with a 5 percent coupon and priced with a 4.42 percent yield, the spread was 165 basis points over the benchmark scale's 2.77 percent yield for top-rated bonds, according to MMD, a unit of Thomson Reuters.</p>
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<p>"It's the widest spread for a state GO bond by far," Smolik said.</p>
<p>An impasse between Illinois' Republican governor and Democrats who control the legislature left the state without a complete budget for an unprecedented two fiscal years. Lawmakers enacted a fiscal 2018 budget and income tax rate hikes in July over Governor Bruce Rauner's vetoes.</p>
<p>The stalemate ballooned the state's backlog of bills from vendors and service providers to an all-time high of nearly $16.4 billion, which was deflated to $9.1 billion as of Wednesday with the help of proceeds from Illinois' $6 billion GO bond sale in October.</p>
<p>BofA&#160;was the winning bidder on Wednesday with an overall 4.33 percent interest cost for $655 million of bonds with maturities from 2018 through 2042 to fund capital projects. The bank also won $95 million of bonds due in 2018 through 2027 to finance information technology with a 3.71 percent interest cost.</p>
<p>Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the corporate and investment banking division of Bank of America Corp. (Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)</p> | Illinois' $750M bonds won by BofA with still hefty yields | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/11/29/illinois-750m-bonds-won-by-bofa-with-still-hefty-yields.html | 2017-11-29 | 0 |
<p>At least nine more people have been killed and hundreds of monks abducted as Burma’s military regime attempts to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7017369.stm" type="external">stamp out</a> a defiant demonstration against its abuses.</p>
<p>China, under pressure from the U.S., has urged calm, while a representative of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said Burma’s neighbors have “expressed their revulsion” in communications to the military junta’s foreign minister.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>The popular defiance has been led by Buddhist monks but there were fewer of the saffron-robed devotees on the streets on Thursday following overnight raids on monasteries.</p>
<p />
<p>Witnesses say soldiers smashed windows and doors and beat sleeping monks. Some escaped but hundreds were taken away in military trucks.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets on Thursday. The military responded with gunshots – witnesses said it was unclear whether the bullets were aimed at the crowd or above heads.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7017369.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p> | World Leaders Condemn Burma Violence | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/world-leaders-condemn-burma-violence/ | 2007-09-28 | 4 |
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